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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 11 - 17 May 2000 Issue No. 481
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Books Features Interview Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Vicissitudes of power
By Sherine BahaaIn a session that did not last more than five minutes, Kuwaiti Judge Nayef Al-Mutairata confirmed the original death sentence against Colonel Alaa Hussein who was convicted in absentia for treason in 1993. Hussein returned suddenly to Kuwait from exile in Norway on 14 January, claiming that he had received assurances from top government officials that he would be pardoned like all other members of the puppet government installed by Baghdad following its invasion of Kuwait in 1990.
Though unhappy with the outcome of the trial, Khaled Abdel-Jelil, Hussein's defence lawyer, praised "the high performance of the Kuwaiti judicial system as it gave us all the chances we wanted to guarantee the highest degree of fairness for the defendant."
However, Hussein's wife, Sonia, who remained in Norway, launched a media campaign against Kuwaiti authorities, accusing them of holding "a fake trial" and charging that the verdict was destined to remain unchanged. Sonia went further in a statement sent to Arabic newspapers, claiming that Hussein was tortured by police in recent weeks.
In a telephone interview with Al-Ahram Weekly, Abdel-Jelil described Sonia's statement as "a total fraud." He castigated Hussein's wife, saying that she herself had been an agent for the Iraqi intelligence service.
Abdel-Jelil attributed the severity of the verdict to the reluctance of two former Iraqi intelligence officers, Wafiq Al-Samarrai and Saad Al-Bazzaz, to testify in the case, despite the fact that the court had agreed to move to London to listen to their testimony. Al-Samarrai was deputy chief of Iraqi intelligence during his country's occupation of Kuwait, while Al-Bazzaz held a senior media post in Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's government. According to Abdel-Jelil, after the verdict was announced, Al-Samarrai contacted him and expressed his readiness to testify.
Kuwait's appeals court is expected to start looking into Hussein's case next week. Should the appeal fail, Hussein's final chance for recourse is to the highest court.
Abdel-Jelil said that he would not give up, and will try to prove that Hussein was forced to accept the position offered by the Iraqis. "I will use records of other Kuwaiti figures who were obliged to speak out against Kuwait [while under occupation] to prove that he was not the only person [to be forced to accept a government position]. I will also bring certain Kuwaiti officials who were imprisoned with him to testify. Besides, I have to re-question Hussein's colleagues in the puppet government as they have altered their testimonies totally during Hussein's trial," Abdel-Jelil concluded.
