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Arabia

5 suspects in Kuwait mosque attack face legal action

2015-06-30

[Al Ahram] Kuwait's interior ministry on Monday referred five suspects linked to the suicide kaboom of a Shiite mosque to the prosecution service for legal action, a security official said. "We have referred five suspects accused of assisting the jacket wallah to the public prosecution," the official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity ... for fear of being murdered... . They include the driver who took the Saudi bomber to the mosque and the car's owner and his brother, all stateless people or bidoons. They also include two Kuwaiti citizens -- the owner of the house used as a hideout for the driver, and his brother, the official said. "More suspects are expected to be referred later," he added. Security agencies have rounded up an unspecified number of suspects in connection with Friday's blast that killed 26 people dead maimed 227. The public prosecution will now interrogate the suspects and then refer them for trial. Kuwait's security agencies have "revised security plans and measures following the attack", said the official, adding that the new measures involve boosting security in general and around mosques in particular. The Islamic State ...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems.... group's Saudi affiliate, the so-called Najd Province, claimed the bombing and identified the assailant as Abu Suleiman al-Muwahhid. Kuwaiti authorities on Sunday said the real name of the bomber was Fahd Suleiman Abdulmohsen al-Qaba'a, who was born in 1992. He entered the country through Kuwait Airport at dawn on Friday, the day of the bombing. A handout photograph of Qaba'a showed a young bearded man wearing a traditional Saudi headdress. Soddy Arabia ...a kingdom taking up the bulk of the Arabian peninsula. Its primary economic activity involves exporting oil and soaking Islamic rubes on the annual hajj pilgrimage. The country supports a large number of princes in whatcha might call princely splendor. When the oil runs out the rest of the world is going to kick sand in the Soddy national face... 's interior ministry, meanwhile, said that it has no records of the bomber who flew to Kuwait via Bahrain on the day of the attack. IS on Monday released a video of Qaba'a in which he threatens Shiites in Kuwait with more attacks. The head of parliament's budgets committee, MP Adnan Abdulsamad, said it had approved a government request for $400 million in urgent additional funding linked to the "prevailing situation" after the bombing.

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Iraq

Iraq says Kuwait reparations are unsustainable

2010-05-07

[Al Arabiya Latest] Iraq cannot sustain its reparations payments to Kuwait for Saddam Hussein's 1990 invasion, which it says are the highest paid by any country in history, Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said Thursday. "Iraq has paid Kuwait enormous amounts of compensation for its losses and we do not know of any country in the world that has paid such high sums," Shahristani told reporters in Baghdad. "The sum of money that Germany paid to France and Britain is less than what Iraq has paid to Kuwait, even though that was a world war and the losses were considerable." On April 13, Adnan Abdulsamad, head of the Kuwaiti parliament's budgets committee, said the emirate had so far received $17.5 billion out of the $41.8 billion approved by a United Nations special compensation fund. "Iraq cannot continue to make these payments and has made this known to the U.N. Security Council," Shahristani said. "We call on our Kuwaiti brothers to work together with us to forget the past, which has cost our country more than our neighbors." Following World War I, the Treaty of Versailles required Germany to pay reparations of 132 billion gold marks (around $31 billion at the time) but Germany repeatedly argued for the amount to be reviewed and ceased payments after Hitler came to power in 1933. After World War II, Germany was required to pay $315 million, equivalent to around $4.1 billion in current money after accounting for inflation. Iraq is required to put five percent of its oil revenues into a U.N. reparations fund, which has so far paid out $28.9 billion to claimants. Since Saddam's overthrow in the U.S.-led invasion of 2003, Iraq has repeatedly appealed to Kuwait and other countries to waive tens of billions of dollars in compensation and debt payments. The bulk of the money is owed to Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Iraq also owes Kuwait around $16 billion for loans Saddam took out to fund his 1980-88 war with Iran, which was largely bankrolled by the oil-rich Gulf states. As it has struggled with insecurity and a raft of economic problems since 2003, Iraq has appealed for the percentage taken out of its oil revenues to be reduced. In July, U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon urged Iraq to consider investments and other alternatives to resolve its reparations dispute with Kuwait, and pressed the Security Council to help Baghdad meet outstanding obligations. Last September, Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammad al-Sabah said his country is considering a proposal by Ban to recover the unpaid compensation by investing in joint ventures in Iraq.

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Arabia

Kuwait grills Shiite ex-MPs over Hezbollah links

2008-03-26

Kuwait's public prosecutor on Tuesday questioned two Shiite members of the dissolved parliament for allegedly joining an underground group working to overthrow the government, their lawyer said. Adnan Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari, who went to the prosecutor voluntarily, were accused of joining the previously unknown Hezbollah Kuwait, Abdulkarim bin Haider told AFP. They were also accused of spreading false news that undermine Kuwait's foreign position, he said. The two denied the charges and were later freed on a hefty 10,000-dinar (37,170-dollar) bail, pending further investigations. Two weeks ago, the prosecution interrogated eight leading Shiites over the same accusations. It freed them on bail after detaining them for several days. The action came after activists from Kuwait's minority Shiite community last month organised a rally to mourn Lebanon's Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh who was killed in a car bombing in Damascus. Mughnieh is suspected of hijacking a Kuwaiti passenger plane in 1988 in which two Kuwaitis were killed. Abdulsamad spoke at the rally and described Mughnieh as a "martyr hero." The prosecution had asked parliament to strip the two former MPs of their immunity to question them but parliament was dissolved by Kuwait's ruler last week and their immunity was automatically lifted. The crackdown on Shiite activists triggered angry protests with the case fuelling sectarian tensions in this oil-rich emirate where Shiites form about a third of the native population of one million. Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah on April 19 dissolved the opposition-dominated parliament calling for a new election on May 17, the second in less than two years.

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Arabia

Kuwait to deport foreigners who mourned Hezbollah chief

2008-03-03

The Gulf state of Kuwait plans to deport foreigners who took part in a rally last month to mourn slain Hezbollah commander Imad Mughnieh, the interior minister said on Sunday. "We will deport any foreigner who took part in the mourning rally. This is a decision we will implement and we will not back down," Sheikh Jaber Khaled al-Sabah told Al-Watan newspaper. He did not say how many people will be deported or if the ministry has begun rounding up suspects. The rally, in which hundreds of Shiite activists including Kuwaitis, Bahrainis, Lebanese and Iranians took part, caused uproar in the oil-rich emirate because Mughnieh was accused of hijacking a Kuwaiti plane two decades ago. Reactions to the protest have taken a sectarian turn in Kuwait, where a third of the native population of one million are Shiite Muslims. Two Kuwaiti lawmakers, Adnan Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari, and a number of leading Shiite activists are being sued by four lawyers and the interior minister in connection with the protest. Three leading activists have been remanded in custody and are being questioned on suspicion of belonging to Hezbollah Kuwait, a previously unknown organisation. The prosecution service aslo plans to interrogate others including former MPs and a member in the municipal council on the same charges. Abdulsamad and Lari cannot be interrogated unless parliament strips them of their immunity, however. Mughnieh, who was killed last month by a car bomb in Damascus, was described at the rally as a "martyr hero," but Kuwait says he was responsible for killing two Kuwaiti passengers on a hijacked plane in 1988.

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