Kuwaiti judiciary fines al-Jazeera TV

The Kuwaiti civilian court issued a sentence to fine al-Jazeera TV in Qatar to pay a sum of 5001 Kuwaiti Dinars as an initial compensation for four Kuwaiti lawyers who filed a lawsuit against its administration and one of its anchors because of openly defaming Kuwait and its people through one of its weekly programs.

Al-Jazeera TV lawyer Mashaal al-Namash considered the sentence as unfair and announced he will reply to the sentence during two weeks, noting that the al-Jazeera TV made no mistake and the defaming was made by one of the program's guests and the Kuwaiti guest had to replied to him.

On the other hand, the two lawyers Muhammad Taleb, and Hashem al-Refae; who are among those who filed the case against al-Jazeera considered that the court's sentence is very fair, stressing that the file of implementing the sentence will be made public immediately as al-Jazeera office in Kuwait will be reserved if the fine is not paid.

Taleb said to the London- based al-Sharq al-Awsat daily that the Kuwaiti lawyers will in the very near future file a new lawsuit before another civilian department asking for increasing the compensation to 20,000 Kuwaiti dinars for the moral damages inflected on them after they had seen al-Itijah al-Mu'akis ( opposite direction ) program which was hosting the Egyptian writer Sayed Nassar and the Kuwaiti journalist Nabil al-Khuder.

This is, however, the second case filed by Kuwaiti citizens against the same channel for similar reasons.

In 2001, the Kuwaiti court sentenced also in the first case against al-Jazeera TV and obliged it to pay 5001 Kuwaiti dinars as an initial compensation for the accusations addressed by one of its anchors against the Kuwaiti authorities on the program Akthar Min Rai (More than one opinion),"