Manama: Authorities in Kuwait have launched an investigation into the suicide of a prisoner convicted on drug charges and being probed on an assault on former lawmaker Musallam Al Barrak.
The 28-year-old inmate, a non-Kuwaiti national, used his bed sheets to hang himself in his solitary cell in the Central Prison, the Interior Ministry’s Public Relations and Security Media Department said in a statement.
“The competent security authorities are investigation the circumstances and motives for the suicide while the Public Prosecution has also launched its probe into the case,” the statement, carried by Kuwait News Agency, added.
The prisoner, a Syrian national according to social media reports in Kuwait, was serving a two-year jail sentence for taking drugs.
He made news on February 19 when he assaulted Al Barrak, a political dissident who was in 2015 sentenced to two years in jail for abusing the status of the Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah in a speech he gave in 2012. The trial had galvanised the country’s attention.
Following the assault, Al Barrak who suffered light injuries was referred to a hospital for treatment and later returned to his cell.
The Interior Ministry opened a probe to determine the reasons for the dispute between the two prisoners and the results were expected to be announced this week.
