KUWAIT CITY, 17 December 2002 — Four alleged Al-Qaeda members, including one accused of links to the attack on the US warship Cole and a plot to bomb a hotel in Yemen, pleaded not guilty yesterday at the start of their trial in Kuwait.

The four Kuwaitis arrested last month for suspected links to Al-Qaeda were formally charged yesterday with joining a foreign army but there was no explicit mention of the group nor of terrorism.

Mohsen Al-Fadli, 21, has been charged with planning attacks in a foreign country, punishable by life in prison.

Kuwaiti Interior Ministry officials said in November that Al-Fadli’s arrest had helped foil a plan to stage a car bomb attack on a hotel in Yemen where Americans were staying.

They said he also provided information about the bombing of the Cole in Aden two years ago and the attack on the French supertanker Limburg off Yemen in October. The Cole bombing killed 17 sailors and the Limburg attack killed one.

Three other Kuwaiti suspects, identified as Adel Yousef Bu Hemaid, 35, Maqboul Fahad Fahhad Al-Maqboul and Mohammed Jamaan Safaq Al-Mutairi, 25, are being tried with Al-Fadli on charges ranging from illegally receiving military training abroad to unlawful possession of machine guns.

The court charged that all four “joined a foreign nation’s military, endangering Kuwait’s political relations.”

The court also accused Fadli and Maqboul of “training with weapons for an illegal purpose” while Bu Hemaid and Fadli “planned to finance the setting up of a training camp outside Kuwait, something that would have endangered Kuwait’s political ties.” In addition, Mutairi was charged with “distributing a pamphlet that contradicted Kuwait’s national interests.”

None of the accusations made any reference to Al-Qaeda, Afghanistan or terrorism.

Lawyer Osama Al-Munawer, who is defending Fadli, Mutairi and Bu Hemaid, told the court that Fadli went to Afghanistan in July 2002 and Maqboul in August 2000.

He said Mutairi tried but failed to enter Afghanistan, and that there was no evidence Bu Hemaid was ever there at all.

“When these young men went to Afghanistan, they had no intention of harming Kuwait,” said Munawer, adding that the prosecution failed to present any evidence they went to Afghanistan to endanger their own country.

Munawer, who claimed he was barred from attending investigations of his clients after their arrest, said the Interior Ministry went on an arrests spree after Oct. 8, when two Kuwaiti assailants killed a US Marine and wounded another.

The attack “indicated how weak security was in the country,” the lawyer said.

“I don’t know why they chose those four people,” he said of his clients.

Munawer also claimed that state security could not prove there was a link between the four, whom he said confessed under duress.

“They are scapegoats for America,” said lawyer Fahad Al-Ajmi, who is representing Maqbool. “Everyone who has a beard ... has become a terrorist suspect,” Ajmi told the court.

The court adjourned until Jan. 6, when the defendants will take the stand. (Agencies)

Kuwait is a key US ally in the Gulf region and seen as a major launching pad for any attack on Iraq. But analysts say there are concerns about a rise in anti-US sentiment among Kuwaitis. (Agencies)

More than 12,000 US troops are in Kuwait, with many of them taking part in the Operation Desert Spring training exercise in the desert close to the Iraqi border. (Agencies)