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Kuwaiti Appeals Court Upholds Execution of Iraqi Puppet Leader
A Kuwaiti appeals court on Sunday upheld the death sentence against Alaa Hussein who headed the puppet regime of Kuwait at the start of Iraq's 1990-1991 occupation.
Hussein, 41, was first sentenced to death in absentia in 1993. The sentence was upheld by the criminal court on May 3 following his return to Kuwait from exile in Norway in January.
Hussein, a former Kuwaiti colonel, argued that he was forced to lead the puppet government handpicked by Iraqi President Saddam Hussein after the occupation of Kuwait. His government lasted only about a week after the invasion. Saddam later annexed Kuwait and declared it an Iraqi governorate before the Iraqi forces were defeated in the following Gulf war.
Hussein claimed that the Kuwaiti government had promised to pardon him before he returned home from exile, but Kuwaiti Information Minister Saad bin Teflah denied the claim.
Hessein's lawyer Nawaf Sari told reporters that he would appeal the verdict in the cassation court, the last stage in the legal process.
"We respect the judiciary but I think he should have been treated like the eight members of his cabinet," against whom charges were not pressed, Sari said.
Any death sentence passed by the cassation court must be approved by the ruling emir, Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmed al-Sabah, who has the power to commute the penalty, which is carried out by hanging in the Gulf Arab state.
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