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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 20 - 26 January 2000 Issue No. 465
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Profile Travel Living Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Back and in trouble
By Sherine Bahaa
Colonel Alaa Hussein, leader of the provisional puppet government in Kuwait immediately following its invasion by Iraq in 1990, returned to Kuwait on 14 January after nearly a decade in exile. Hussein spent most of this period in Baghdad before he was allowed to go to Europe via Turkey. Tried in absentia for treason, he faces trial yet again.
Hussein will appear before a criminal court on 20 February, according to his lawyer Khaled Abdel-Jalil. Speaking to Al-Qabas, a Kuwaiti daily, Abdel-Jalil explained that the retrial process involves referring the case file to the court that sentenced Hussein to death in absentia in 1993. The file will then be transferred to the public prosecutor, before being re-submitted to the court for a new ruling. Kuwaiti Attorney General Mohamed Al-Banani said the prosecution had no new evidence or further charges. Political observers have suggested that Hussein may receive a pardon from the emir, though probably not immediately.
A cabinet official has said that Hussein returned of his own free will, without having made a deal or official arrangements with the Kuwaiti government. "I cannot bear to live in exile any longer. I am ready to appear before an impartial court in Kuwait," he said on arrival, according to news agencies.
The other nine members of the interim puppet administration installed by Iraq were acquitted. Only Hussein was accused of collaborating with the Iraqi regime.
Following the invasion, the Iraqi government summoned Hussein to Baghdad, made him a colonel, and named him prime minister of a "provisional government for free Kuwait." He appeared on Iraqi television asking President Saddam Hussein to unite Kuwait with its neighbour Iraq. Hours later, Baghdad announced that Iraq had annexed Kuwait and Hussein subsequently disappeared from public view.
Upon his arrival in Kuwait last Friday with his four children, Hussein was immediately arrested. Since his quiet departure from Iraq in 1998, he had been living in Norway. Authorities immediately began interrogating Hussein, who was imprisoned, at least for now, as a death-row inmate. His children were placed in the custody of relatives in Kuwait.
