Kuwait’s pardoned dissidents return to a country in crisis

With Kuwait trying to claw its way out of a dangerous economic hole and decade of political deadlock, it has done what many countries in the region consider unthinkable — launched a widespread public reconciliation campaign that granted amnesty to prominent political dissidents last fall.

In pardoning nearly three dozen other dissidents, emir Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah met a long-held demand of the opposition — a bid to break the worsening gridlock between the elected parliament and his hand-picked Cabinet.

Some lawmakers withdrew support for the amnesty, rejecting it as a political ploy to win their silence. Others saw it as cosmetic step to avoid further concessions in a country that bans political parties and restricts voting rights.