Filipina held … pledged allegiance to IS – Suspect admits desire to carry out attack

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KUWAIT CITY, Aug 5, (Agencies): Kuwaiti security forces have captured a Filipino national for pledging allegiance to socalled Islamic State (IS) and confessed she wanted to carry out a terrorist act once she could, the Ministry of Interior (MoI) said Friday.

The MoI said in a statement security authorities monitored one of the email accounts run by the female Filipino, who entered Kuwait last June as a house maid. In this email, it added, the arrestee, who was born in 1984, contacted IS in Libya and was using a fake name and a nick-name to evade monitoring. The ministry said she confessed she was ready to carry out any terrorist attack once circumstances and means were ripe, in order to undermine security and stability in Kuwait, as well as igniring sedition.

The statement did not identify the woman, nor did it say if she faced criminal charges. It wasn’t immediately clear if she had legal counsel. Kuwait has been hit by an Islamic State attack before. A suicide bomber killed at least 27 people and wounded 227 during the holy month of Ramadan last year. Last week, the Preventive Security Service (PSS) said it was monitoring at least 50 people, mostly Kuwaitis, who have close ideological link with DAESH, reported Al- Anba daily quoting a high-level security source.

The source revealed some of these people are clerics who preach in mosques but their association with the terrorist organization is purely intellectual, adding that their movements are monitored round the clock. The source said the recently-seized cells led to the discovery of some more of these cells although several of them were known to the Internal State Security Unit at PSS.

The source added it is not a secret that people are called up every now and then, in an explicit message from the security services that they are under surveillance and their communications and even their movements are known.

In response to a question why they are not arrested and prosecuted, the source said the Constitution and the law necessitate physical proofs which are not available because the issue is related to thought, tendencies and sympathy. He stressed these persons are closely monitored, especially their remittances, pointing out that the extension of detention comes as one of the steps to prosecute those with extremist ideology.

The source went on to say that the Interior Ministry, in coordination with the Central Bank and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, played a significant role in reducing the flow of Kuwaiti funds to terrorist organizations. He warned that any contact with any terrorist or suspicious organization shall be met with decisive response, indicating there is no room for leniency at the expense of the security of the country and its people The source affirmed the PSS and Criminal Investigations Department have the right to use all their powers to protect the country and its citizens, even the use of firearms if necessary.

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