Backing the death penalty in Kuwait for the Iraqi occupation government's premier
Kuwait, Judicial, 5/4/2000

The criminal court in Kuwait on Wednesday backed the death-sentence already issued in absentia against the Kuwaiti prime minister under the Iraqi occupation, Col. Ala Hussein Ali, who returned to the country of his own will to prove his innocence.

Judge Nayef al-Muteirat announced at the conclusion of the debate which lasted only for three minutes that, "The criminal court backs the previous sentence," which was issued in absentia in 1993, and called for the death penalty to be imposed against Col. Ali under charges of "treason" and collaborating "with the enemy at the time of war."

Ali (41) seemed shocked when the sentence was read, and he was taken by the soldiers out of the hall of the court.

He returned to Kuwait on January 14 of his own will from Oslo and called, in the name of the Kuwaiti law, for cancellation of the sentence released against him in absentia. He was retried beginning on January 20.

His lawyer, Khaled al-Abdullah al-Jalil, who was not at the court when the new sentence was read, said he will appeal this sentence within the grace period of 21 days stated in the law.

The chairman of the court visited London on April 2 to listen, at the request of the defense, to the testimony of two Iraqi opposition members who cannot return to Kuwait because of the "reservations" of the authorities which suspect them of being involved in the Iraqi invasion. But the Iraqi opposition members, a former official in the Iraqi intelligence Wafiq al-Samer and former senior Iraqi media official Saad al-Bazzaz refused to give their testimonies under the pretext they do not want to go to the Kuwaiti embassy because it is considered Kuwaiti territory.

Col. Ali presided over a provisional government composed of nine ministers appointed by Baghdad on the day of the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait on August 2, 1990.

Since the very beginning of his trial Ali has repeated that he is innocent and that the Iraqi authorities forced him to form the provisional government. No sentences were released against the other eight members of that government who surrendered and paid a penalty of US $400,000 to the Kuwaiti authorities. Seven of those government members, as the eighth has died, stressed that Col. Ali was the only one who collaborated with the Iraqi occupation forces.

Previous Stories:
  Occupation ruler threatened government members, testimony   (3/2/2000)
  Kuwait's governor under the Iraqi invasion returns to Kuwait   (1/15/2000)
  Iraqi opposition leader visits Kuwait   (12/29/1999)

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