A Kuwaiti court yesterday sentenced two men to death on charges of spying for Iran and Hezbollah.
One of the defendants, an Iranian, was convicted in absentia while the other is a Kuwaiti citizen.
The court sentenced other suspects to terms ranging from five years to life imprisonment and acquitted four.
The judge said the Iranian Revolutionary Guards sought to carry out acts of sabotage to overthrow the regime.
According to the court, one of the defendants, Kuwaiti Hasan Abdulhadi Ali had coordinated with an Iranian diplomat stationed at Tehran’s embassy in Kuwait City, and later travelled to Iran to meet the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC).
He arranged to smuggle large quantities of arms and explosives into Kuwait. It added that Hezbollah sought through one of the defendants to gather information about Kuwait’s preparations in case Israel hit the Iranian nuclear reactor.
The defendants were also convicted of smuggling and assembling explosives, and possessing firearms and ammunition.
A leader of Lebanese Hezbollah Hassan Hoballah criticised the sentences.
In an interview with Quds Press, Hoballah described the espionage charges with Hezbollah and Iran as “disgraceful”.
“We are all Muslims and we have one enemy who occupied our land, Israel and the neo-colonialism represented by the United States,” he added.
He added that Hezbollah’s relations with Kuwait and other Arab countries have not been hostile.
The verdicts can be appealed.
The 23 defendants had denied the charges and alleged that confessions were extracted under torture, the BBC reported.