Kuwait’s Public Prosecution has ordered the arrest of Islamist former lawmaker Mubarak Al-Duwailah over leaked conversations with late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi.
This development comes a week after Al-Duwailah was summoned by the state security at the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry.
Al-Duwailah is also accused of spreading fake news and slandering Emir Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah after he made statements claiming that he had informed the Emir and Saudi Arabia’s King Salman Bin Abdulaziz about his talks with Gaddafi.
The audio leaks, revealing a plot to undermine security and cause instability in the Gulf region and Egypt, were circulated in late June by Qatari dissident Khalid Al Hail, who lives in London.
In his defense, Al-Duwailah has tweeted that he "we had to keep up with" Gaddafi and did not "dare to oppose him" as the meeting took place in the former Libyan leader's tent.
In a televised appearance, Al-Duwailah also claimed that his visit to Libya was known to the Foreign Ministry.
Sheikh Ali Al Jarrah Al Sabah, the Minister of Emiri Diwan Affairs, denied Al-Duwailah's statements, in which he claimed that he conveyed to Emir Sheikh Sabah what happened between him and Gaddafi.
Al Jarrah stressed that the remarks made by Al-Duwailah that he had briefed Kuwait’s Emir regarding his meeting with Gaddafi are “totally untrue”.
The Minister of Emiri Diwan Affairs stressed that it is not acceptable to refer anything to the country’s Emir without first gaining an official approval from the Emiri Diwan and warned of the consequences.
Al-Duwailah is one of the leaders of Hadas, officially the Islamic Constitutional Movement, which is a political group tied to the Muslim Brotherhood in Kuwait.