Kuwait’s pardoned dissidents return to a country in crisis

By ISABEL DEBRE and MALAK HARB
Associated Press

KUWAIT CITY (AP) — Dissidents still languish in prison or exile and authorities have snuffed out all hints of opposition over a decade after uprisings known as the Arab Spring reached autocratic sheikhdoms of the Persian Gulf. But Kuwait, home to the most powerful parliament among its Gulf neighbors, is different. The ruling emir launched a widespread public reconciliation campaign that recently granted amnesty to the most prominent political dissidents, no strings attached. The amnesty met a long-held demand of the country’s rowdy opposition — a bid to break the worsening government gridlock. But hopes for conciliation soon soured. The dissidents have returned home to find their country careening into social and economic crisis.