Manama: Kuwait’s Cassation Court has overturned a ruling by the Court of Appeals ordering the government to compensate financially the victims of Al Sadiq Mosque suicide bombing three years ago.
The Court of Appeals had ruled a compensation of KD40,000 for the victims, claiming responsibilities of government agencies tasked with ensuring security and banning the smuggling of explosives into the country.
However, the government rejected the claims and took the case to the Court of Cassation, which on Monday said there was no legal ground to demand financial compensation for damages resulting from terror crimes that were perpetrated by elements not related to the government.
According to the judges, there was no neglect by the government and the state is committed to deploying security measures, but not to achieving results.
Additionally, the specific act of terrorism occurred outside the will of the state authorities, including the Ministry of the Interior, and could not be anticipated at that time, they said on Monday.
The Cassation Court is the highest court in the country and its rulings cannot be appealed or challenged.
The attack on the Shiite mosque on June 26, 2015, caused the death of 27 worshippers and the injury of 227.
The bomber, Fahd Sulaiman Abdul Mohsen Al Gabbaa, a Saudi national who had never left his country, arrived on a flight to Kuwait airport at dawn on Friday and blew himself up hours later inside the mosque during the prayers.
The attack failed to divide Kuwaitis alongside sectarian or ideological lines and resulted in an impressive show of unity and mutual support.
One year later, Kuwait’s Emir Shaikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah performed noon prayers in the renovated Al Sadiq Mosque.
The ruler, who had visited the mosque hours after the terrorist attack, also met relatives of those killed and wounded in the tragic attack.
“Our national unity is the unassailable fence that safeguards security,” Shaikh Sabah told them. “The patriotic spirit manifested by the people of Kuwait and their love, devotion and allegiance to their homeland would fend off all criminal and terrorist acts.”
Kuwait charged 29 people — seven Kuwaitis, five Saudis, three Pakistanis, 13 stateless people and another person at large — with the bombing of the mosque. Five of the suspects were tried in absentia.
The public prosecutor demanded the death penalty for 11 suspects, but after a series of trial sessions that went up to the Cassation Court, only six were sentenced to death.
