Kuwait court jails 5 over IS funding – Two acquitted
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KUWAIT CITY, Nov 2: The Criminal Court presided over by Judge Mohammad Jafar sentenced the first, second, fifth, sixth and seventh defendants to ten years jail term each with hard labor and immediate execution over allegations of diverting donations, which were collected for Syrian refugees, to DAESH group.
The court acquitted the third and fourth defendants. It also ordered the police to place the second, fifth and sixth defendants under surveillance for five years and to confiscate the money and telephones found in their possession.
It is noteworthy that the first and second suspects were earlier indicted by the court in the case of the bombing of Imam Al-Sadiq Mosque. According to the case file, the Public Prosecution accused the seven suspects — two Kuwaitis, two Syrians, two Egyptians and a Saudi — of sending the donations they collected from diwaniyas of some former lawmakers to DAESH.
They had allegedly placed announcements on the streets and social media, and had organized seminars titled ‘Relieve Syrian people and children’. They had also organized campaigns under the slogans ‘Rescue your brothers in Syria’, ‘Rescue Syrian children’ and ‘Support Syrian people’.
The Kuwaitis and the Saudi were in charge of collecting donations in boxes from people, transporting the boxes and then pulling out the money from those boxes. They sold material donations such as jewelries and vehicles to convert them into cash.
The participation of some former lawmakers contributed in gathering huge amounts of money. The Kuwaiti and Saudi suspects declared that their roles were limited to collecting funds and converting material donations into cash.
They revealed that their Syrian and Egyptian accomplices had handled the repatriation of the donations from Kuwait and that they were the ones who knew how, where and to whom the donations were disbursed. The suspects allegedly transacted through a major money exchange office to send a large part of the funds to DAESH members in Halab, Al-Deer and Al-Zour. Part of the funds was sent to wounded DAESH members in Turkey for settling their hotel bills, and the rest of the money was sent to DAESH members in Jordan.
By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff
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