Kuwait clears Shiite MPs over Hezbollah mourning

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They had been charged with spreading false news that would undermine Kuwait’s foreign position and illegally distributing leaflets, Jaleel al-Tabbakh told AFP.

"They have been acquitted of all charges."

The case began after activists from Kuwait’s minority Shiite community organised a rally in February to mourn Imad Mughnieh, who was killed in a car bomb in Damascus.

Mughnieh is suspected of having hijacked a Kuwaiti passenger plane in 1988 in which two Kuwaitis were killed.

Adnan Abdulsamad spoke at the rally and described Mughnieh as a "martyr hero".

A crackdown after the rally triggered angry protests, with the case fuelling sectarian tensions in the oil-rich emirate, where Shiites form about one-third of the native population of one million.

Initially, the activists were interrogated about joining a previously unknown underground group called Hezbollah Kuwait, which has links with the Lebanese Shiite militia.

But the charge was dropped for lack of evidence, Tabbakh said.

The two MPs, Abdulsamad and Ahmad Lari, served in the parliament that was dissolved in March and were re-elected in May.

The other five activists include two former MPs and a leading cleric.

 

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