Cairo: Kuwaiti prosecutors have ordered the release of three defendants on a bail of KD5,000 each in a case related to financing the Lebanese Iran-allied Hezbollah group, local media reported.
The three are banned from travelling abroad.
Eight others are still detained in connection to the case that involves a total of 23 Kuwaiti and foreign suspects, Al Qabas newspaper reported, citing a close source.
The case dates back to last November when Kuwait dismantled a cell suspected of having links with Hezbollah.
The arrests were made after authorities received a security report from an unspecified “sisterly” country, the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Seyassah said at the time.
The suspects were questioned by the Kuwaiti State Security Service on charges including money laundry for Hezbollah and encouraging young Kuwaitis to collaborate with the Lebanese movement, carry out terror acts and smuggle drugs in Syria and Yemen.
The paper said the suspects had admitted in investigations that they had collected donations in mosques in Kuwait without approval from authorities.
The case surfaced amid a sharp diplomatic crisis between the Gulf countries, including Kuwait, with Lebanon after its then information minister George Kurdahi had made remarks supporting Yemen’s Iran-aligned Houthi rebels. Kurdahi resigned in December amid efforts to defuse the crisis.
Kuwaiti Foreign Minister Ahmed Naser Al Sabah visited Lebanon earlier this week, becoming the first Gulf official to make such a visit since the diplomatic row erupted.
