The Kuwaiti Criminal Court, represented by the State Security Circuit, sentenced on Monday three defendants to death and eight others to five years in prison, in a case involving espionage for Iran and the Lebanese Hezbollah, and plotting to assassinate the Kuwaiti First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, Sheikh Fahad Al-Yousuf, along with other state figures.
The court, presided over by Counselor Nasser Al-Badr, convicted Sheikh Hussein Abdullah Al-Matouq, Hassan Abdulhadi Hajieh and Abdulreza Haidar Dehqani, an Iranian national, with harming Kuwait's national interests, spying for foreign entities, and joining the Lebanese Hezbollah group.
The Public Prosecution charged the defendants with committing acts that would undermine the independence, unity, and territorial integrity of the country, as well as seeking and communicating with Iran and Hezbollah to carry out hostile acts against Kuwait, which included plotting to assassinate the Minister of Interior and other leading figures.
Case documents revealed that remaining defendants held meetings to plan the assassination and assigned roles among themselves. An eleventh defendant was tasked with providing the necessary equipment to execute the plot, acting under instructions from the first three defendants who received death sentences.
The court stressed that "national security is not the interest of an individual or a faction, but a right of society as a whole," adding that state sovereignty cannot be contested by a foreign power.
