A Kuwaiti man has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for insulting the Prophet Muhammad and the Sunni Muslim rulers of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain on microblogging website Twitter.



A court in Kuwait on June 4 found 22-year-old Shi'ite Muslim Hamad al-Naqi guilty of all charges.



Naqi had pleaded innocent at the start of the trial last month, claiming that his Twitter account had been hacked and that he did not post the messages.



In recent months, Kuwaiti courts have issued jail terms against tweeters and activists amid a sharp rise in sectarian tensions between the emirate's Sunni majority and Shi'ite minority.



The country's Islamist-controlled parliament passed a law last month stipulating the death penalty for serious religious offenses.



The law has not been implemented yet.



Based on reporting by Reuters and AFP