2 Kuwait royals sentenced for insulting parliament speaker

KUWAIT CITY –  A lawyer says two Kuwaiti ruling family members have been found guilty of insulting the country’s National Assembly speaker.

Sheikh Athbi Al Sabah, a nephew of Kuwait’s ruling emir and former head of Kuwait’s National Security Office, and Sheikh Khalifa Al Sabah, the publisher of the now-shuttered Al Watan newspaper, were among six people sentenced Monday.

Lawyer Saud al-Hamdan, who represented speaker Marzouq al-Ghanim, confirmed the sentences to The Associated Press.

Those convicted could not be immediately reached for comment.

Al-Hamdan says they received five-year prison sentences and 5,000 Kuwaiti dinar ($16,700) fines.

The case involves a group on the mobile phone messaging app WhatsApp that sought to spread fabricated videos of Kuwaiti judges receiving bribes.

Sheikh Athbi faces another five-year prison term in another trial over the group.