Kuwait: Expat, citizen get jail terms over Daesh links

Cairo: A Kuwaiti court has convicted a citizen and an expatriate of joining the terrorist Daesh (ISIS) organisation and sentenced them to five years and 30 months in prison respectively.

The Criminal Court also ordered the expat whose nationality was not revealed be deported from Kuwait after serving the term.

Both defendants were charged with joining Daesh and inviting others to join its ranks on social media and setting up websites to promote the militant militia’s ideology ideas. It was not clear when the case surfaced.

Earlier this month, another Kuwaiti court acquitted three Tunisian expatriates of having links with ISIS and planning attacks against Shiites in the country.

In December, a Canadian national of Arab origin was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a separate case on charges of promoting Daesh ideology and defaming Arab leaders.

The defendant was charged with joining a banned group with the intention of spreading principles aimed at destroying the country’s basic system and calling for joining the group via social media, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported.

In 2015, some 27 people were killed in the bombing of a Shiite mosque in Kuwait. The bombing claimed by Daesh was carried out by a suicide attacker during the congregation Friday prayers in Al Sadeq Mosque.

The terrorist attack was the first of its kind in Kuwait in more than two decades.

In 2023, an inmate convicted of involvement in the bombing attack was executed. He was charged with aiding the suicide bomber by driving him to the mosque. Five other defendants were tried in absentia and sentenced to death. Eight others were sentenced to 15 years in prison each in the same case.