Manama: Kuwait's interior minister Shaikh Jaber Al Khalid Al Sabah resigned yesterday a short time after his ministry confirmed that Mohammad Gazzay Al Maymouni Al Mutairi, a Kuwaiti national, had been tortured to death.
"Yes, I have handed in my resignation in line with my commitment to assume my responsibilities fully and to honour the pledge I made on Wednesday. It is not to my honour, and I will not accept, to lead a ministry that attacks Kuwaiti citizens," he said.
The minister has come under intense fire following reports that Al Mutairi was tortured in police custody and that he was handcuffed when he was taken to a local hospital accompanied by five intelligence men.
Doctors concluded that he had died from torture and beatings.
However, initial official statements attributed his death to a heart attack, a claim that prompted the Kuwaiti Bar Society to form an ad hoc committee to monitor the investigation.
In its first statement, the interior ministry said Al Mutairi was arrested on Saturday for trafficking in alcohol. The police said it found 24 bottles of wine with him and that he had confessed he had broken the law.
The statement added that Al Mutairi however resisted arrest and sought to run away from the police. During the ensuing pursuit, he used a knife and a large board to injure some policemen, but was eventually arrested.
According to the statement, the police did not need to exert any pressure on him since he had already confessed and that they planned to hand him over to the public prosecutor.
However, Al Mutairi suffered from pains in the chest and the police called in an ambulance that took him to a local hospital, the police said.
A statement issued by the ministry yesterday afternoon said that the post mortem autopsy proved that Al Mutairi did not die from natural causes and that there "is suspicion of criminality behind the death."
Islamist MP Faisal Al Mislim hailed Shaikh Jaber for submitting the resignation and urged the prime minister to accept it "promptly", Kuwaiti news portal Al Aan reported. "The next step is to take action against all those implicated," he said.
