August 4 Trial Set In Mosque Attack

(MENAFN- Arab Times) The Criminal Court will convene on August 4, 2015, to try the Imam Al-Sadiq Mosque bombing suspects, reports Al- Seyassah daily. Earlier reports said the Public Prosecution has sought capital punishment for 11 of the 29 suspects who are charged with carrying out the deadly bombing on June 26, 2015, which left 26 people dead and more than 200 wounded. Those charged include seven Kuwaitis, five Saudis, three Pakistanis, 13 Bedoun and another person who is still at large and whose identity has been withheld. In other news, the Public Prosecution following interrogations with the so-called members of the 'Fintas Group' has released on KD 10,000 bail each Sheikh Athbi Al-Fahd and attorney Falah Al-Hajraf, reports Al-Seyassah daily. The Public Prosecution says, the travel ban on the two suspects remain in place.

Earlier the Public Prosecution had released Sheikh Khalifa Al-Ali, Yousef Shamlan Al-Essa and lawyer Abdulmohsen Al-Atiqi on similar bail and Kuwaiti Jarrah Al-Dhafiri on KD 2,000 bail respectively. These men also belong to the same group and have been banned from travel. Al-Atiqi is charged with abusing the judiciary and the position of HH the Amir, and spreading false rumors about the country's internal situation on the social media. Al-Dhafiri is charged with taking part in a group chat on the social media, contacting two members of the group (a poet and a lawyer) and defaming and tarnishing the reputation of the judiciary, in addition to misusing the cell phones.

Meanwhile, in a statement issued on Thursday, the Ministry of Interior warned those who initiate bogus calls or prank calls related to the nation's internal security that they would be held accountable for their misdeeds to the fullest application of the law. This warning comes as the ministry has logged too many phoney calls by people who make these calls either to spite someone they have a serious rift with or just for fun. For instance, the ministry statement said that a boy of 14 years of age called in a prank call to police alleging that he had seen a suspicious man hanging around a mosque with the implication that he might be ready to commit a crime. When questioned about it, the boy admitted it was all done for fun.

In another incident, a Pakistani resident handed maliciously a closed envelope to the Imam of a mosque who, when he opened it, found a copy of a photo ID of another Pakistani resident. Attached to the ID was a note claiming that the second resident was a terrorist and that he had fled the country. After bringing in both residents, police discovered that the note was a hoax and that the incident was fabricated because of enmity between the two male residents. The ministry statement said that all legal actions were taken in these two cases and warned others not to resort to such shenanigans for ill-begotten gains.