 KUWAIT CITY - Kuwait's public prosecutor demanded Saturday the death penalty for 34 of 37 militants suspected of links to Al Qaeda and deadly clashes with police in January as their trial resumed here. The request for the death sentences against 34 militants, including a woman, came in the charge sheet.
The charges include joining an illegal extremist group, the Peninsula Lions Brigade, reportedly linked with the Saudi Al-Haramain Brigades and Osama bin Laden's Al Qaeda network. They are also charged with carrying out terrorist acts, participating in the killing of several policemen and plotting to attack US forces and citizens in the oil-rich Gulf emirate. The trial, which opened on May 24, resumed amid tight security. One of 11 men initially tried in absentia, Nuri Mutashar Mudallal, turned himself in during the hearing. Mudallal, 30, is one of seven bidoon, or stateless Arabs, in the group. Twenty-five defendants are Kuwaitis, two Jordanians and one each from Saudi Arabia, Australia and Somalia, the case documents showed. Most of the suspects are accused of involvement in four gunbattles with Kuwaiti security forces in January that left four police officers dead and 10 others wounded. Eight militants were killed in the fighting, while the alleged leader of the group died in police detention eight days after his arrest on January 31. |