Kuwait and Egypt Agree on Extraditing Offending Tweeps

Kuwaiti daily newspaper Al-Rai reported on the 4th of September on a Kuwaiti-Egyptian agreement "to extradite tweeps who pose a threat to national security from both sides, the fruit of “judicial and security cooperation underway”.

The report added that "Kuwait and Egypt signed a memorandum of understanding recently to intensify bilateral judicial cooperation to permit the arrest and the exchange of twitter users who pose a threat to both countries”

The Egyptian Attorney General Nabil Sadek visited Kuwait a few days ago and signed the agreement with his Kuwaiti counterpart Dherar Al Assousi regarding perpetrators of cybercrimes from both countries.

Sadek told Egyptian news agency MENA that the memorandum serves "to increase cooperation between the Egyptian and Kuwaiti Public prosecutors and to open direct channels of communication between the two sides in order to help speed up procedures, which will lead to clamping down on suspects wanted by the public prosecutors in both countries and bring them to justice in good time”.

Egypt and Kuwait crack down on free speech on Twitter: An extradition agreement has been recently signed ensuring swift procedures to deport any Muslim Brotherhood social media cells using Kuwait as an operational base.

The fruit of a wide judicial and security cooperation agreement, Kuwait and Egypt signed a memorandum of understanding to permit the arrest and the exchange of twitter users who pose a threat to both countries

He added that the memorandum "aims to strengthen the bonds of judicial cooperation between the Egyptian and Kuwaiti prosecutors in the fight against crime in all its forms ... and facilitate the process of information exchange, and the swift implementation of judicial co-operation and extradition."

He believes that it will help to "improve the use of technology in order to counter the advances made by criminal groups in the enactment of their crimes”.

He pointed out that "with the development in the means of committing crimes helped by the tremendous development in technology - the perpetrators of cybercrime that affect Egyptian national security, or aimed at harming the economy, and reside in Kuwait, will be through the memorandum of understanding, arrested and deported and vice versa: Anyone who commits a crime in Egypt, aimed at harming Kuwait's security or economy, will be extradited to the Kuwaiti side. "

The prosecutor pointed out that there is no direct link between the memorandum and the recent extradition of the so-called “Kuwait cell "of the Muslim Brotherhood to Egypt.

Al- Asousi said that the memorandum includes a number of points, most notably the exchange of information between the two public prosecution offices, judicial assignments and judicial assistance conducted through diplomatic channels, in addition to organizing courses and coordinating positions in regional and international forums, exchanging visits and conducting workshops and joint legal programs.

He pointed out that the legal co-operation delineated in the memorandum "is based on the exchange of data and information regarding cases, and the answering of queries and the questioning of witnesses," noting that "Usually the data that we may need in Kuwait from Egypt or they need in Egypt from Kuwait are critical in the resolution of some cases”.

In a related context, Al-Rai quoted informed sources as saying that "recently many Egyptians affiliated with the Muslim Brotherhood have disappeared from social media as they closed their accounts on those sites, especially Facebook."

The sources pointed out that the arrest of the Muslim Brotherhood cell and the boost in judicial and security cooperation between Kuwait and Egypt and the recent agreement to extradite twitter users considered a threat to security has “deterred many” whom they described as “after using cyberspace to incite and mobilize they have opted to disappear from social media sites”.