Saturday, April 02, 2005

It's a real burden...

... being right all the time. I told you this would happen. Not surprisingly, this was NOT front page news...

Kuwait drops plot case against soldiers
KUWAIT CITY (AFP): Kuwait's public prosecution has dropped the case of two soldiers who were arrested earlier this year on suspicion of plotting attacks on US forces, the defense minister and a lawyer said Tuesday. "The case has been shelved and investigations have been permanently halted because there is no crime," the defense lawyer for one of the two soldiers, Mohammed Al-Mutairi, told AFP. Defense Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Sabah confirmed that the charges had been dropped. "Yes, certainly," the minister told reporters in response to a question if the case was "shelved" by the prosecution. The army's judicial department, however, "is still assessing the case" to take the necessary legal measures, said the minister, without elaborating.

The pair, one of them a major, were among 15 soldiers questioned on charges that they were plotting to attack US and other foreign troops in Kuwait. All others were released after questioning but the two were referred to the public prosecution for further investigation as a prelude to pressing criminal charges. "The whole affair was caused by some security officials who acted on weak information and rumours before verifying them," Mutairi said. The two soldiers were detained for about 40 days before being freed on bail. They were arrested on Jan 3, about 20 days after the US embassy warned that it had "credible information that terrorist groups" were preparing to carry out attacks in the country in the near future.


Source: Arab Times Online

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