UK extradition wins panel nod

This news has been read 6926 times!

KUWAIT CITY, April 10: The parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee unanimously approved Monday the extradition agreement between Kuwait and Britain. Committee Chairman MP Ali Al-Daqbasi said the agreement has been referred to the Parliament for discussion or voting on Tuesday.

He disclosed the agreement consists of 19 articles, including a stipulation on holding accountable the previous and present offenders.

In another development, MP Adel Al-Damkhi presented a bill to amend the parliamentary regulations in order to form a permanent committee which will be called “Human Rights and Public Freedoms Committee”.

According to the bill, the committee will consist of five members and its functions include studying laws, issues and proposals concerning public rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution and laws particularly those related to prisons, correctional and rehabilitation centers, provisional arrest and monitoring of government agencies to ascertain the extent of their commitment to protect human rights as well as handling complaints and observations about violations of human rights and public liberties and then propose appropriate solutions.

Moreover, the Financial and Economic Affairs Committee approved the proposal to grant KD 400 end-of-service pay (indemnity) to retired officers and KD 300 for other military personnel who served for 25 years or more. Committee member MP Saleh Ashour added the committee also endorsed the proposal to grant KD 250 to those who served for 20 years, apart from the end-of-service pay.

Meanwhile, Interior and Defense Committee agreed on deleting the second paragraph of Article Two of Parliament Election Law number 32/1962, in addition to defining crimes against honor and integrity that are currently in court. He said the government refused to repeal the law while the committee scrapped the entire paragraph that has been regarded as “offensive”. He added the committee unanimously approved the proposal to grant citizenship to not less than 2,000 and not more 4,000 deserving applicants in 2017. He revealed the government rejected the idea of setting minimum number in the Naturalization Law but agreed on the phrase “not more than 4,000.”

By Abubakar A. Ibrahim Arab Times Staff

This news has been read 6926 times!