Kuwaiti Islamists accuse the authorities of torturing them
Kuwait, Politics, 9/11/2004

Four Kuwaiti Islamists accused of conspiring to attack foreign forces in Kuwait and Iraq, accused the authorities in their country of extracting confessions from them under mental and physical abuse.

In a joint statement in the city of Kuwaiti, Muhammad al-Asfour, Ahmaf al-Oteibi and Bader al-Oteibi called for repeating investigations with them in the accusations addressed, noting that they were forced to say what had not happen and had no links to.

The four men were arrested in August. They are part of an Islamic group detained over suspicion that they are supporters of al-Qaida organization and they run a local network to teach youths an extremist religious thinking with the aim of fighting the American forces in Iraq and Kuwait.

The men who were released earlier this month, held, waiting for their trial, a press conference in Kuwait in which they stressed they were handed over after their detention to officials at the state security and most of them were "exposed to beating, torture and continued insults." The men said they were instructed to repeat their same "fabricated confession" in the office of the attorney general under the threat of bad treatment if they do not do so. They said they were jailed in isolated cells and observed food strike for three days in protest of their detention but were ordered to stop otherwise they will face more torture.

The four men demanded the need that members of the Kuwaiti parliamentary are to interrogate Sheikh Nawaf al-Ahmad al-Sabah, the minister of the interior and the first deputy for the prime minister over these allegations.

Previous Stories:
  Kuwait licenses a judicial society, releases detainees   (8/25/2004)
  Kuwait launches a campaign to rehabilitate youths coming back from Iraq   (8/18/2004)
  Detainees in Kuwait observe hunger strike in protest of maltreatment   (8/9/2004)

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