KUWAIT CITY, Dec 8, (AFP): A Kuwaiti writer serving a one-year jail term for allegedly slandering the prime minister underwent heart surgery on Wednesday and his family was allowed to see him, his daughter said.
“They found three arteries blocked and the surgery was successful,” Sumaya al-Jassem told AFP, as she and other family members were allowed to see her father at a public hospital. Mohammad Abdulqader al-Jassem, 54, a heart patient who has undergone about nine operations in the past, was rushed to the hospital late Tuesday.

His hands and legs were bound to the hospital bed for hours until his doctor ordered the restraints to be removed, his daughter said. Last week, the appeals court refused a request to release Jassem, who is also a well-known lawyer and journalist, and set December 15 to issue its verdict in the appeal against the prison term. Jassem has been in jail since November 22 after being convicted over an article he wrote and posted on his website a year ago.