The Fintas Group (Arabic: قروب الفنطاس) is a Kuwaiti dissident group named after the homonymous WhatsApp group chat its members belonged to. It gained fame on April 2, 2015, when it ran a firehose of falsehood media campaign in Kuwait via mass messaging of mobile phones through the WhatsApp chat application. The message alleged a conspiracy against the state to overturn the system of governance and justice.^[1]

The Kuwaiti public prosecutor charged members of the group with 'intentionally broadcasting abroad false and malicious news and rumors about the internal conditions of the country, and violating a means of public communication by not showing due respect to the judges.’ Several members were ultimately convicted.^[2]

Members

Hamad Ahmed Al-Haroun, for whom the Kuwaiti Criminal Court issued an absentia sentence of 10 years in prison, is one of the prominent defendants. The charges also included three members of the ruling Al Sabah family: Azbi Fahad Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah (nephew of the Kuwaiti Amir Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah), Ahmed Al-Dawood Al-Sabah, and Khalifa Ali Al-Khalifa Al-Sabah. These three received a 5-year prison sentence.^[3][4]

The court also sentenced lawyers Abdulmohsen Mohammed Al-Otaibi and Falah Hajraf Al-Hajraf to 5 years in prison, along with Saud Al-Asfoor, who received a one-year imprisonment. As for the other defendants, who were acquitted, they include Yousif Shamlan Al-Essa, Fawaz Abdullah Al-Sabah, Ahmed Sayyar Al-Anzi, Mohammed Abdulqader Al-Jassim, Mashari Nasser Buwaibes, and Jirah Mohammed Al-Zafiri.

Name

Fintas is the name of an ancient coastal city located approximately 26 km away from the Kuwaiti capital.

References