KUWAIT CITY, 6 March 2003 — A court jailed Kuwaiti police officer Khalid Messier Al-Shimmari for 15 years here yesterday after finding him guilty of wounding two US soldiers last year.

“The verdict is unfair,” a clean-shaven Shimmari shouted out in court before being led away, handcuffed, after hearing the ruling.

His defense lawyer Nawaf Al-Mutairi told reporters outside the courtroom, in regard to the two hours it took to reach a decision: “The verdict was too quick.” Down the corridor, Shimmari’s mother was seen weeping.

Shimmari was sentenced to 10 years for attempted murder and another five for unlawful possession of arms. He was also fired from his Interior Ministry job. This was the first verdict related to a series of shootings involving Americans in Kuwait. Mutairi had maintained throughout the trial that his client was “crazy.”

Before judge Nayef Al-Mutairat read out the ruling, Shimmari was seen sitting relaxed with his family. Before being ushered back behind bars to hear the verdict, his family kissed and embraced him.

“All the Interior Ministry (officers) admitted to negligence when they delivered the weapon to the boy (defendant),” Mutairi told the court before the verdict was issued.

He also said that the director of the psychiatric hospital had refused to swear before the court that Shimmari was responsible for his actions. “I wish the court would have mercy on this young man because of these contradictory reports,” Mutairi said.

The court found that Shimmari, 20, shot the two soldiers, both assigned to the US Third Army, while they were traveling on a highway south of Kuwait City. One was wounded in the face and the other in the shoulder. The soldiers were in a civilian vehicle but in military uniform and on “official business” when they were shot on Nov. 21.

Shimmari fled to Saudi Arabia after the attack, where he was arrested and sent back to Kuwait. Seven doctors from Kuwait’s psychiatric hospital testified during the trial that there was no way to prove whether Shimmari was momentarily suffering from a previously diagnosed manic disorder at the time of the shooting, or whether he was responsible for his actions.

Psychiatrist Abdul Rahman Fawzi said that at the time of the shooting, Shimmari was not visiting the hospital where he had been diagnosed with manic disorder last May but only admitted for 30 minutes before his brothers pulled him out. The lawyer yesterday questioned how the court could believe a report from doctors in a hospital where Shimmari was only admitted for half an hour.

Mutairi insinuated that the authorities had influenced the testimony of the non-Kuwaiti hospital doctors.

Shimmari had also consulted a private Kuwaiti psychiatrist, who said he needed to be on medication for six to nine months, and was also seeing a doctor in Jordan, the court heard earlier.

“I take daily medication, and if I don’t take it I’m not normal,” Shimmari said in a previous hearing, adding: “I don’t remember that I shot them.” Lt. Col. Waleed Omar had also testified that Shimmari’s wife had previously told state security that on the morning of the attack, her husband told her: “I will shoot you and if I see any Americans, I will shoot them.”

However, she later claimed she had been coerced into making the statement and told the court her husband had never been normal since she married him in the summer prior to the attack. Mutairi had argued during the trial that “this is the case of a crazy person,” but also said his client was not affiliated to the Al-Qaeda terror network or any other organization.

Kuwait, liberated from Iraqi occupation by a US-led coalition in the 1991 Gulf War, has witnessed six shooting incidents, two fatal, involving Americans since October.