KuwaitÂ’s highest court commuted on Tuesday death sentences passed on four militants suspected of links to Al Qaeda to life imprisonment. A court ruling read out to reporters also confirmed life sentences for two other militants.
| Is this an EU-style 'life sentence', as in about, oh, eight years? |
The four militants had appealed against death sentences handed down by a criminal court in 2005 for bloody attacks in the Gulf Arab state. An appealsÂ’ court had confirmed the death sentences in 2006.
The militants had been charged for their part in clashes with police in 2005 in which four security officers and nine militants were killed. Charges against the defendants had also included belonging to an “extremist” group, calling for attacks on state facilities, and trying to kill Kuwaiti security officers as well as members of “friendly forces” in the country, which hosts thousands of US troops.
The defendants were among 37 Islamists on trial as members of the group calling itself Peninsula Lions, which is suspected of having links to Al Qaeda. |