Manama: Security forces in Kuwait have repatriated a terror suspect from the Philippines, days after he and his wife were arrested in the capital Manilla.
Hussain Al Dhufairi arrived in Kuwait aboard a military plane dispatched to bring him home to face charges of belonging to a terror group and planning to carry out attack in the northern Arabian Gulf state, Kuwaiti daily Al Rai reported on Sunday.
His wife, Rahaf Zina, who holds a Syrian passport, could not be sent alongside her husband to Kuwait where she has no residence permit. She could not be sent back to Qatar from where she had flown into Kuwait as she did not have the permit to enter the country.
The authorities in Manila did not wish to send her back to Syria on account of the war situation there.
Al Dhufairi, 40, was reportedly a Daesh bomb maker who helped plot attacks in Kuwait and possibly in the Philippines. He is reportedly the brother of Abdul Mohsen Al Dhufairi, also known as Abu Jandal Al Kuwaiti, one of the most dangerous Kuwaiti members of Daesh. He was killed months ago in an international coalition bombing raid.
Rahaf, 27, was reportedly the widow of a top Daesh commander in Syria. After her arrest, she told authorities that she was pregnant and she was sent to a hospital, Philippine media reported.
Al Dhufairi and his wife were arrested in late March in an upscale commercial district in Taguig city in metropolitan Manila. However, the arrests were not announced until April 7 when the handcuffed suspects were presented to reporters. They were not, however, allowed to speak.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said the arrests were kept secret to allow Philippine authorities to identify the pair’s local contacts and avoid the risk of their capture prompting possible accomplices to advance any planned attack, ABC News reported. Aguirre said information provided by the US and Kuwait made the arrests possible.
Following Al Dhufairi’s arrest, security authorities in Kuwait conducted raids that led to detaining three of his relatives and seven members of his network.
Kuwaiti media reported that the police seized materials used to make explosives as well as documents.
More arrests are expected to be made as the investigation with Al Dhufairi continues.
