Court Revokes Membership of Dahoum, Ignites Political Crisis
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SHAABAN 1, 1442 AH MONDAY, MARCH 15, 2021 16 Pages Max 25º Min 11º 150 Fils Established 1961 ISSUE NO: 18383 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf www.kuwaittimes.net Roads repairs easier Syrian ‘father of martyrs’ Arab troubadour Madfai Giannis triple-double fuels 2 during curfew hours 6 raises orphaned grandkids 12 longs to get back on stage 16 Bucks, Harden powers Nets Court revokes membership of Dahoum, ignites political crisis 28 MPs vow to back lawmaker by changing ‘undemocratic’ laws By B Izzak has been a great democratic country, but has Amir heads to Europe after retreated in the recent past because of rife corrup- KUWAIT: Kuwait’s constitutional court yesterday tion and lack of justice. revoked the parliamentary membership of leading The restrained statement came even as many successful medical tests in US opposition MP Bader Al-Dahoum for being convict- opposition MPs said they will boycott the ed of insulting HH the Amir seven years ago, in a Assembly’s next session to prevent the government surprising ruling that is certain to ignite a political from taking oath in the Assembly. Several opposition crisis that has engulfed the country for months. MPs called before the meeting to declare non-coop- The court, whose rulings are final, also deprived eration with the government, blaming it for the turn Dahoum from running for public office for life, of events, but it appears that the 28 lawmakers have applying a highly controversial law passed by the decided to use the Assembly to pass urgent laws. pro-government Assembly in 2016 that prevents Opposition MP Mohammad Al-Mutair however people convicted of insulting the Almighty, prophets said that a grilling against HH the Prime Minister and the Amir from contesting parliamentary elec- Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Sabah that he had filed tions for life. along with Dahoum is still standing. MP Hamdan Al- Twenty-eight MPs said in a statement following Azemi said yesterday he will replace Dahoum in the a hurriedly-arranged meeting that the court ruling debate of the grilling. violated logic, well-established legal principles The constitutional court accepted three petitions and bases and breached the authority entrusted in contesting the election of Dahoum, who was cleared the court, especially after the regular courts had to run in the Dec 5 polls by the court of cassation, unequivocally ruled in favor of Dahoum and whose rulings are final. Dahoum, a professor of reli- closed the case. gious education, was convicted of insulting HH the HH the Amir Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah departed the United States yesterday, The lawmakers vowed to change what they Amir and was handed a suspended term by the heading to Europe on a private visit. HH the Amir had undergone successful medical examinations described as undemocratic laws, including the court of cassation, which gave him three years to in New York. — KUNA much-criticized law used by the court to revoke prove good conduct. Dahoum’s membership. The statement said Kuwait Continued on Page 2 study that found “no substantial difference” in classrooms or shortening the school day. Many News in brief US weighs 1-m COVID cases in schools observing six-foot and teachers unions have also insisted on six-foot dis- three-foot rules. tancing. Policies on reopening schools and busi- Jordan detains 5 over deaths Asked on CNN’s “State of the Union” show nesses have varied sharply across the US and distancing rule, whether that meant that a three-foot separation was around the globe as government try to balance AMMAN: The director and four other officials sufficient, Fauci replied, “It does, indeed.” While quelling infections with a return to normal life. of a Jordanian hospital treating coronavirus a major change cautioning that the CDC was still poring over the The study led by the Beth Deaconess Medical patients were detained yesterday over deaths at new data and conducting tests of its own, he said its Center in Massachusetts, surveying 251 school dis- the facility after it ran out of oxygen, judicial WASHINGTON: The United States’ top pandemic findings would come “soon”. The six-foot social dis- tricts, found “no substantial difference in the num- sources said. A prosecutor decided to place advisor said yesterday that authorities were consid- tancing rule has been a widely-adopted global ber of cases of COVID-19 among either students or them in custody for a week for questioning after ering cutting social distancing rules to three feet measure to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, staff” between those observing the three- and six- seven patients died Saturday in the hospital in (one meter), a move that would change a key tenet along with mask-wearing and hand-washing. foot rules when all wore masks. The findings, pub- Salt, near Amman, they said. — AFP of the global fight against COVID-19. Anthony School officials across the world are under enor- lished in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, Fauci, a world-respected figure during the coron- mous pressure to fully reopen as soon as safely add to a growing body of evidence that COVID-19 avirus crisis, said experts at the Centers for Disease possible, but many say the six-foot requirement transmission rates are low in schools. 388K killed in Syria war Control (CDC) were examining a Massachusetts makes it extremely difficult without adding portable Continued on Page 2 BEIRUT: The overall death toll for Syria’s civil war has reached 388,652 since it began a promulgated regulations allowing the decade ago this month, a war monitor said yes- detention of anyone suspected of terday. The Britain-based Syrian Observatory Lanka brings causing “acts of violence or religious, for Human Rights said the figures include almost racial or communal disharmony or 117,388 civilians, among them more than 22,000 in detention, feelings of ill will or hostility between children. Attacks by the Syrian regime and allied different communities”. The rules, militia forces accounted for the majority of civil- bans burqa effective Friday, have been set up ian deaths. — AFP (See Page 5) under the Prevention of Terrorism Act COLOMBO: Sri Lanka Saturday (PTA), which both local and interna- Kosovo opens Jerusalem embassy announced using a controversial anti- tional rights groups have repeatedly terror law to deal with religious asked Colombo to repeal. PRISTINA: Kosovo said yesterday it had offi- extremism and gave itself sweeping Sri Lanka’s previous government, cially opened its embassy in Jerusalem after powers to detain suspects for up to which was defeated by Rajapaksa at becoming the first Muslim-majority territory to two years for “deradicalization”. 2019 elections, had pledged to repeal recognize the city as Israel’s capital. The move Separately, the government also said the PTA after admitting it seriously was in exchange in for Israel recognizing Kosovo. it will soon outlaw the burqa, formal- undermined individual freedoms, but The new embassy was opened during a brief cer- izing a temporary ban imposed in failed to do so. Rajapaksa, who came emony during which Kosovo’s flag was raised in April 2019 after deadly bomb attacks to power with a promise to battle blamed on local jihadists. Islamist extremism, announced the COLOMBO: Burqa-clad Muslim women climb down a flight of stairs at a front of the building in Jerusalem. The zoological park yesterday. — AFP Palestinians claim east Jerusalem as the capital of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa Continued on Page 2 their future state, and most countries have their embassies in Tel Aviv. — AFP the Bahariya Oasis several buildings Christian made of basalt, others carved into the Zaghari-Ratcliffe back in court bedrock and some made of mud bricks,” it said in a statement. TEHRAN: British-Iranian ruins found The complex is comprised of “six dual national Nazanin sectors containing the ruins of three Zaghari-Ratcliffe appeared in Egypt churches and monks’ cells”, whose in a Tehran court yesterday “walls bear graffiti and symbols with to face new charges of CAIRO: A French-Norwegian Coptic connotations”, said Osama “propaganda against the archaeological team has discovered Talaat, head of Islamic, Coptic and system”, a week after she new Christian ruins in Egypt’s Jewish Antiquities at the ministry. finished serving a five-year Western Desert, revealing monastic Mission head Victor Ghica said “19 sentence, her lawyer said. life in the region in the fifth century structures and a church carved into Hojjat Kermani said she is now being prosecuted AD, the Egyptian antiquities ministry the bedrock” were discovered in for “propaganda against the system for having said on Saturday. “The French- 2020, according to the statement. Norwegian mission discovered during The church walls were decorated A handout picture released yesterday shows a view of an ancient participated in a rally in front of the Iranian Christian structure carved in the bedrock discovered in Egypt’s Western embassy in London” in 2009. — AFP its third excavation campaign at the with “religious inscriptions” site of Tal Ganoub Qasr al-Agouz in Continued on Page 2 Desert. — AFP 2 Established 1961 Monday, March 15, 2021 Local Kuwait customs seize Captagon pills, chewing tobacco, counterfeit goods KUWAIT: Customs workers open one of the containers. Captagon pills found in one of the containers. KUWAIT: Customs officers found 292,000 bags proper authorities for further action. products. The contraband will be sent to con- the third had nearly 4.5 million Captagon tablets containing chewing tobacco that were hidden in On Saturday, cooperation between customs cerned authorities. hidden in it while the fourth container contained two containers that arrived at Shuaiba Port yes- detectives and the southern ports administration Customs officers became suspicious after four counterfeit goods, in addition to banned tobacco terday.