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Kuwait Upholds Death Sentence for Sadiq Mosque Blast Ringleader | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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Security forces, officials and civilians gather after the deadly blast that struck worshippers attending Friday prayers at Imam Sadiq mosque in Kuwait City, June 26, 2015. (AP)


Kuwait-Kuwait’s Supreme Court on Monday upheld the death sentence handed down to the main convict in the June 2015 bombing of the Imam Sadiq mosque that killed 26 people and left 227 injured.

The court confirmed the sentence of capital punishment passed on Abdulrahman Sabah Idan, known as Saud, a stateless man (Bidoon) who drove the Saudi suicide bomber to the mosque during Friday prayers.

The attack in Kuwait City was claimed by ISIS.

The court also upheld jail terms of between two and 15 years for eight people, including four women, and acquitted 15 others including three women and the owner of the car that was used to drive the suicide bomber to the mosque.

The court did not hear the appeals of five others — four Saudis and a stateless man — who had been sentenced to death in absentia by a lower court.

Under Kuwaiti law, sentences issued in absentia are not reviewed by higher courts until those convicted appear in person.

The four Saudi men still at large include two brothers who smuggled the explosives belt used in the attack into Kuwait from neighboring Saudi Arabia. The fifth man is a stateless Arab.

Twenty-nine defendants, including seven women, had been charged with helping the Saudi suicide bomber attack the mosque, which was the bloodiest in Kuwait’s history.

Meanwhile, Kuwait’s Criminal Court sentenced Athbi al-Fahad, a former intelligence chief, and several others to five years in jail for insulting the emir and the judiciary on the Internet.

Also convicted was Khalifa al-Ali, the editor of Al-Watan newspaper.

They were among 13 people charged with using the Internet to insult the emir and publish false news accusing judges of accepting bribes, the court ruled.