KUWAIT CITY, 26 April 2005 — About 50 journalists staged a sit-in at the Kuwaiti journalists’ association yesterday to protest an assault in which three photographers were badly injured.
Some 30 angry relatives of a Kuwaiti man who poisoned his eight children last week after his wife left him attacked reporters and photographers who went to cover the man’s reenactment of the crime at his home late Sunday.
Four daughters and a son died, while the 36-year-old father and three other children recovered following three days in critical condition in hospital, after he forced them to drink juice laced with poison and drank it himself.
The three photographers, who were hospitalized after the assault, claimed that police did not try to stop the assailants.
Sayed Saleem, a Pakistani working for the daily Al-Qabas, told AFP he was severely beaten by a group of six men who damaged his camera and then hit him on the head with it causing a deep wound. “They beat me up on various parts of the body while the police was watching,” Saleem said.
The Interior Ministry however denied the claims and said that 11 policemen were hurt as they attempted to protect the journalists.
The assailants will be arrested and referred to investigation, it said in a statement.
