KUWAIT CITY, 27 July 2004 — Kuwaiti security forces are hunting a third fugitive suspected of having links to Al-Qaeda and a local network enlisting youths to fight US-led forces in Kuwait and Iraq, the Interior Ministry said yesterday.

Adel Habib Abtan Ghati, alias Shimmari, a 20-year-old bidoon, or stateless Arab, is wanted for a matter related “to state security”, the ministry said in a statement carried by the official KUNA news agency.

It appealed to residents to cooperate in bringing about his arrest.

On Saturday, the ministry announced that Kuwaitis Khaled Al-Dossari, 21, and Ahmed Mohammed Whaish Al-Mutairi, 27, were “fugitives wanted in connection with a case related to state security”, and released pictures of the pair.

The ministry did not give details of the charges against the pair. Dossari is a spokesman for the Association of Victims of Torture and Arbitrary Arrest.

The announcement regarding the pair came two days after the emirate said that four Kuwaitis had been extradited by Syria after being arrested for illegally crossing or trying to cross into Iraq.

The ministry said the four had confessed to the charges and informed on other people, including a number who were under 18, some of whom were detained and found in possession of weapons as well as “maps and plans for operations”.

A security source said earlier Sunday that Kuwaiti police had found documents detailing an apparent plot to assassinate Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi during a planned visit here later this week.

However, the Interior Ministry later issued a formal denial of any plot to attack Allawi in Kuwait. “The relevant security services of the ministry did not uncover any such schemes,” spokesman Adel Al-Hashash told KUNA.

On Sunday, Interior Minister Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmed Al-Jaber Al-Sabah said the prosecution was questioning 11 people in connection with a purported campaign to recruit volunteers to fight US forces in Iraq.

“Eleven people have been referred to the prosecution for investigation of their role in ... enlisting youth for so-called jihad in Iraq,” Sheikh Nawaf told the KUNA news agency.

Authorities are trying to track down a small number of people who have been cited in the investigation as involved in the recruitment drive, he said.

Sheikh Nawaf said some of the suspects were teenagers who had apparently been “brainwashed” with extremist ideas.

“Some of the accused confessed that there are bases in which they train to achieve their goals,” he said.

At its weekly meeting on Sunday, the Kuwaiti Cabinet discussed measures to protect young people from the “dangerous ideas propagated by some extremists.”

The drive to prevent youngsters from being misled would be coordinated by several ministries, including those of the interior, social affairs and Islamic affairs, Deputy Premier and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Mohammed Deifallah Sharar said in a statement carried by KUNA.

Death for Treason

A Kuwaiti court on Sunday sentenced a Kuwaiti man to death for spying for the former Iraqi regime led by Saddam Hussein, whose forces invaded and occupied the Gulf Arab state during the 1990-91 Gulf crisis.

Mohammad Al-Juwaied, in his late 30s, was found guilty of spying for the former Iraqi regime since 1993 and providing them with intelligence on Kuwaiti military locations and US Army bases.

Juwaied has one month to appeal the ruling, which includes a death sentence in absentia against two unidentified Iraqi diplomats accused of collaborating with Juwaied.

A former officer of Kuwait’s National Guard, Juwaied was arrested last year for treason, the highest crime against national security.