Amnesty International Report 2004 - Kuwait

Covering events from January - December 2003

The ongoing impact of the US-led military intervention in Iraq saw a rise in the number of attacks on US forces in Kuwait followed by the arrests of dozens of men. Some of the alleged attackers were linked by the authorities to al-Qa'ida. There were unconfirmed reports of torture or ill-treatment of political and criminal detainees. Political prisoners, including prisoners of conscience, continued to be held. However, four of them were released on expiry of sentence; they had been convicted after manifestly unfair trials in previous years. No executions were reported, but death sentences continued to be handed down.

Background

On 6 July, following parliamentary elections, the government resigned and on 13 July, the Emir of Kuwait, al-Shaikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah, split the posts of crown prince and prime minister. He announced that al-Shaikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, his half brother and long-serving Foreign Minister, would be Prime Minister. In October, a new government was formed. Its priorities were said to include "security issues and the fight against terror" and revitalizing the economy. In December, the new members of the parliamentary human rights committee visited Kuwait's Central Prison to examine conditions there and to follow up on recommendations made by the committee following its 2001 visit.

Arrests and trials

Security measures were strengthened in Kuwait during the year with coordination between the military, police and National Guard. Dozens of men were arrested following the war on Iraq on charges of attacking US military interests or spying for Iraq, or on suspicion of having links with al-Qa'ida. Some of the detainees reportedly made confessions under duress.

• On 5 March, Khaled Messier al-Shimmari, a police officer, was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment by a court in Kuwait. He was convicted of wounding two US soldiers in November 2002. However, according to reports, he had previously been admitted to hospital for psychiatric treatment. On 24 June, the Court of Appeal upheld his sentence. His lawyer said he would appeal to Kuwait's highest court, the Court of Cassation.

• On 28 October, the Court of Appeal commuted the death sentence of Sami Mohammad Marzook Obaid al-Mutairi to life imprisonment and reduced to two and a half years' imprisonment the sentences of Badi Karuz al-Ajami and Khalifa al-Dihani. Sami al-Mutairi had been sentenced to death on 6 April by the Criminal Court for the premeditated murder of US national Michael Rene Pouliot, a locally recruited civilian contract worker, on 21 January near Camp Doha, the main US military base in Kuwait. He had reportedly "confessed" to the killing and that he had "adopted the al-Qa'ida ideology". He was extradited from Saudi Arabia after fleeing there following the attack. His two accomplices had been sentenced to three years in prison for providing him with the murder weapon and ammunition. During his trial, Sami al-Mutairi had denied the validity of his taped "confession" and testified that police officers had prepared the statement and forced him to read it in front of a video camera.

Releases of political prisoners

Following the war on Iraq, at least four of the 30 political prisoners who had been sentenced after manifestly unfair trials in State Security Courts following the Gulf war in 1991 were released and deported after serving their sentences. The four were sisters Rasan and Intisar Khallati; Zannuba 'Abd al-Khadr 'Ashur, who returned to her family in Iraq in April; and Fawwaz Muhammad al-'Awadhi Bseiso, who was resettled in Yemen.

AI received confirmation during the year of the release of two other political prisoners, Rahim Muhammad Najm and Ibtisam al-Dakhil, in 2001 and 2002 respectively. Ibtisam al-Dakhil, a Kuwaiti national by marriage, was stripped of her nationality and resettled by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in a third country.

Kuwaiti detainees in Guantánamo Bay

On 2 September, lawyers representing the 12 Kuwaiti nationals held in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, filed a petition asking the US Supreme Court to examine the cases of the detainees. On 10 October, the Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal filed on behalf of two United Kingdom nationals, two Australians and the 12 Kuwaitis (see also USA entry).

Death penalty

No executions were recorded. However, death sentences continued to be handed down, mainly for murder, rape or drug-related offences.

On 11 March the Court of Cassation reportedly commuted to life imprisonment the death sentence of Khaled al-Azmi, a policeman. He had been convicted of the murder of Hudaya Sultan al-Salem, a prominent woman journalist and member of the royal family, publisher and editor-in-chief of the weekly journal al-Majalis in March 2001.

'Disappearances'

On 16 March, Iraqi and Kuwaiti officials held talks in Jordan with Saudi Arabian officials on the fate of at least 600 of their nationals missing since the 1991 Gulf war. Delegates from the International Committee of the Red Cross took part as observers. Following the change of government in Iraq, forensic teams from Kuwait inspected mass graves in Iraq. By the end of the year, the remains of at least 34 Kuwaiti prisoners of war were identified through DNA testing and returned to their families. The process of identifying remains was continuing at the end of the year.

Women's rights

Parliamentary elections in July continued to deny women the right to stand as candidates or vote, and women staged protests against their exclusion from the polls. According to reports, hundreds of women held their own mock election at a makeshift booth at the Kuwait Journalists' Association. On 20 July the new Prime Minister, al-Shaikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, promised to renew efforts to grant women more political rights in Kuwait. In September the government announced it had finalized a draft municipality law which would give women for the first time the right to vote and run for office in polls for a new municipal council. The draft law had not been submitted to parliament by the end of the year. Towards the end of the year, several women were selected to act on a voluntary basis as "environmental mayors" to promote awareness of environmental issues in cities.