Thursday, February 28, 2008
Elder of ZiyonKuwait has summoned more than 1,500 suspects, including Kuwaiti citizens as well as others from various Arab and Islamic nationalities, over a rally to mourn top Hizbullah commander Imad Mughniyeh.I wonder - is Kuwait acting "disproportionately" for questioning 1500 people about their support for someone who performed two terror attacks against Kuwait 20 years ago?
Diplomatic sources in Kuwait said interrogation is underway with some of them.
The summons relate to an investigation into a rally to mourn Mughniyeh who was killed in a car bombing in Damascus Feb.12.
The suspects were summoned for "suspicion of belonging to Hizbullah and for intimidating state security," said one source.
The sources said prominent Shiite Kuwaiti MPs Ahmad Lari and Adnan Abdulsamad will not be debriefed because they enjoy parliamentary immunity.
They said the summons, however, included former Kuwaiti MP Abdel Mohsen Jamal, municipality council member Fadel Sifr, Secretary General of the Social Cultural Society (SCS) Hussein al-Maatouk as well as SCS member Hasan al-Salman. They were prevented from traveling.
Prior to the summons, interrogation was carried out with three other Kuwaiti officials.
"Mughniyeh is a martyr hero who shook the grounds beneath the Zionist enemy (Israel) and America ... His blood will wipe Israel off the map," Abdulsamad told a large crowd that took part in Mughniyeh's mourning.
But Abdulsamad denied that Mughniyeh, who was on America's most wanted list for a series of attacks on Israeli and Western targets in Lebanon in the 1980s, was involved in two plane hijackings and a series of bombings in Kuwait.
"There is no evidence whatsoever to prove that Mughniyeh was either the mastermind or a perpetrator in the hijackings or the bombings," he said.
Although it is widely believed that Mughniyeh was behind the hijackings in Kuwait, the Gulf state has never officially accused him.
A former Egyptian steward with Kuwait Airways has said he recognized Mughniyeh as the hijacker of two Kuwaiti passenger planes in the 1980s.
The planes were seized by militant Shiite groups to demand the release of 17 Shiite activists jailed in Kuwait for carrying out a series of bombings against U.S., French and Kuwaiti targets.
About one-third of Kuwait's native population of one million are Shiites. They have four MPs in the 50-member parliament.(AFP)
Waiting to hear what the human rights organizations have to say....
