KUWAIT, 10 November 2004 — Four Islamists sentenced to seven years in jail on charges of plotting attacks in Kuwait had their sentences quashed yesterday by the country’s highest court, a judicial source said.
The four Kuwaiti men, Khaled Al-Enezi, Adel Ali, Bader Juma’a and Dubais Al-Azmi, had been sentenced to seven years in jail after their arrest in 2003 on charges which also included possession of illegal weapons.
“The appeals court had earlier this year sentenced them to seven years in prison and now the Court of Cassation has found them innocent,” said the source, without elaborating.
Meanwhile, two Kuwaitis accused of financing militant operations in Iraq and collaborating with Al-Qaeda ally Abu Musab Al-Zarqawi were acquitted on Sunday by a court, security sources said yesterday.
The men were identified as Mohammad Al-Adwani and Mohsen Al-Fadli. Al-Adwani was arrested in July on suspicion of aiding the funding of militants in Iraq. He was accused of cooperating with Jordanian-born militant Zarqawi, whose network has claimed responsibility for several killings and kidnappings in Iraq. Al-Fadli, who has not been arrested yet, is suspected of links with Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda group and is accused of enlisting Kuwaiti youths to fight foreign troops in Kuwait and Iraq.
“The two men were found innocent by the court. But there’s definitely going to be an appeal to change the verdict,” one source said. “The prosecution will press more charges as well,” it added.
Kuwait has stepped up security and cracked down on suspected Islamists plotting attacks against foreign forces in Iraq.
