MPs unanimously agreed to apply the internal charter on Mohammad al-Juwaihel to bar him from entering the parliament building or attending meetings of committees for two weeks.
Several MPs testified during the debate that they saw Juwaihel spit on opposition Islamist MP Hamad Matar and then make “immoral” gestures during the session.
A proposal to ask police to arrest Juwaihel to examine him for alcohol, totally banned in the conservative Muslim state, was referred to parliament’s legal panel to see whether the request was in line with the law.
Lawmakers in Kuwait enjoy immunity and protection against arrest or interrogation by the judiciary while parliament is in session.
Several opposition MPs said that Juwaihel was coming to parliament while drunk and MP Mussallam al-Barrak alleged that he was being backed by a number of ruling family members.
Information Minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah al-Sabah categorically denied the allegation.
The latest upset to the Kuwaiti parliament came as a Kuwaiti judicial tribunal investigating graft allegations cleared the former prime minister of wrongdoing in a series of financial transactions made abroad, the law firm representing him said Thursday.
Sheikh Nasser al-Mohammad al-Sabah’s government resigned last year after some opposition lawmakers accused it of having made a series of illegal financial transfers via Kuwait’s overseas embassies.
Sheikh Nasser, a nephew of Kuwait’s ruler, had repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. It was the first time that a complaint against a former prime minister and a member of the ruling Al-Sabah family had been investigated at such a high level in the Gulf oil producer.
Sheikh Nasser was “cleared and exonerated on all criminal charges filed against him,” a statement from the law firm representing him said.
