Kuwaiti prosecutor demands extended sentence for convicted royals

A petition created and delivered to the appeals court by Dherar al-Asoussi requests an increase in the sentence initially handed to the royals after they were found guilty of insulting the state on social media platforms, Whatsapp and Twitter.

Asoussi challenged the verdicts and demanded harsher jail terms in the case that saw 13 defendants tried for insulting the country's emir, judges and spreading false news about the Gulf state.

But the appeals court has not yet set a date for the hearing and must waited for verification from the supreme court.

Last month, a lower court indicted the three royals, including Sheikh Athbi al-Fahad Al-Sabah, the emir's nephew and a former head of the secret service police to five years in jail, along with two other royals accused of insulting senior judges online.

Three others also received prison sentences while seven people were reportedly acquitted.

Although the convicts remain free, the interior ministry maintained it was searching for Sheikh Athbi after failing to locate him during a raid on his home.

Similar cases have emerged from Kuwait in recent years with another member of the royal family being arrested for accusing the government of corruption in July 2012.

Similarly, two other royals were interrogated for sympathetic tweets in support of the Kuwaiti opposition.

Most recently, Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad, an international sports figure and current president of the Olympic Council of Asia was given a six-month suspended prison sentence for quoting the Emir without permission.