Press reports confirmed that Kuwaiti-American journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, 41, left Kuwait on 24 April 2026, after 52 days of arbitrary detention.

On 23 April 2026, the State Security and Terrorism Crimes Chamber of the Criminal Court issued its verdicts in several cases involving social media users. The charges against them included spreading false news, inciting sectarian strife, and sympathising with a hostile state, after they published their personal opinions online.

The court rulings included sentencing 17 defendants to three years in prison, while another defendant received a 10-year sentence in connection with two separate cases. The court also decided to refrain from punishing 109 defendants, requiring them to maintain good conduct and delete the tweets in question, while acquitting nine defendants of the charges against them.

Among those acquitted was Shihab-Eldin, who had been arrested on 03 March 2026, while visiting his family, due to his social media posts.

Shihab-Eldin was born in California to Kuwaiti parents. He is a recipient of several international awards, has over a million followers on Instagram, and has previously worked for a number of international media outlets, including The New York Times, PBS, and the BBC.

The Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) welcomes the acquittal of journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin, although he should never have been targeted in the first place, and had his civil and human rights violated.

GCHR calls on the Kuwaiti authorities to unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience and to protect public freedoms, especially freedom of expression online and offline.