Barrak Rejects SUMMONS to Report for Interrogation
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SUBSCRIPTION SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2014 SHAABAN 24, 1435 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Ban’s Kuwaiti Klose equals advisor fears record as civil war Germany draw in Iraq with Ghana 2 20 SUPPLEMENT INSIDE Barrak rejects summons to Max 48º Min 31º report for interrogation High Tide 07:16 & 20:29 Feb 2012 National Assembly is legal: Tabtabaei Low Tide 00:57 & 14:08 40 PAGES NO: 16204 150 FILS By Staff Reporters KUWAIT: In a dramatic turn of events, prominent opposition leader Mussallam Al-Barrak said yesterday he has decided to decline a police summons for inter- rogation in a complaint filed by head of the Supreme Judicial Council Faisal Al-Marshed. Barrak said in a statement he received the summons two days ago and was asked to appear at the Criminal Investigation Department today at 9.00 am, and “after consultations with my legal team, I have decided to decline the sum- mons”. The former outspoken lawmaker listed several rea- sons for his action, raising a number of highly contro- versial and sensitive issues which could lead to police arresting and detaining him. Barrak claimed the sum- mons was against the law, “which stipulates that I should be told about the nature of the case filed and the name of the person who filed it”. “If I was sum- moned as a suspect, then the law stipulates that the Criminal Investigations Department should first sum- mon the complainant and hear his testimony before doing the same with the accused,” he added. The oppo- sition hardliner said that if the public prosecution issues a subpoena to summon him, he would react to it when it happens. Marshed filed a lawsuit against Barrak for remarks he made at a public rally on June 10 which were deemed offensive to the country’s top judge. Barrak repeated his claims again yesterday, saying that the judicial council does not have the legal powers to sue him. The former lawmaker also said that the judicial authorities are adopting a highly selective approach in the major case after deciding to start with him for remarks he made against Marshed instead of pursuing BEIT KAHIL: Israeli soldiers arrest a Palestinian man during a search for three missing Israeli teens in this village near the West Bank city of Hebron yesterday. other accused people. Barrak said that the authorities — AP (See Page 8) have taken no action against people accused of crimes of state security, money laundering, having contacts with a foreign country and making financial deals with US Presbyterians divest in Israel protest Israel, but have spared no time to start legal proce- dures against him. WASHINGTON: The nearly 1.9 million-member Assembly moderator Heath Rada emphasized that the historically been seen as a “last resort” after “other engage- The opposition figure said that the judges who sued Presbyterian Church USA voted Friday after a contentious decision “in no way reflects anything but love for both the ment tools have failed.” him and who will be interrogating him are his foes who debate to divest from three companies that provide sup- Jewish and Palestinian people,” the church’s news service Omar Barghouti, a co-founder of the boycott, divest- have already and publicly expressed their opinions plies to Israeli forces and settlers in the occupied West said. The measure also included a reaffirmation of Israel’s ment and sanctions (BDS) movement, praised the vote as against him and accordingly, the legal procedures may Bank. The 310 to 303 vote at the influential Protestant right to exist, an endorsement of a two-state solution and a “sweet victory for human rights.” He said Presbyterian not be neutral and fair. denomination’s meeting in Detroit, Michigan, means the encouraged interfaith dialogue, The Times reported. It supporters of Palestinian rights have introduced divest- In the meantime, former Islamist opposition MP group will pull financial investments out of Caterpillar, also included a provision to encourage “positive invest- ment into the US mainstream and have given Palestinians Waleed Al-Tabtabaei described the political situation as Hewlett-Packard and Motorola Solutions, the church’s offi- ment” to improve the lives of Israelis and Palestinians, the “real hope in the face of the relentless and intensifying highly complex and added that according to legal cial news service said. The church has about $21 million Times said. The close vote came after a week of intense cruelty of Israel’s regime of occupation, settler colonialism viewpoints, the opposition-dominated Assembly elect- invested in the three companies, a spokeswoman told The lobbying and “most contentious debate of this assembly,” and apartheid.” ed in Feb 2012 but later scrapped by a court order “is New York Times. the church’s news service said, noting that divestment has Continued on Page 15 still the legitimate legislative body”. Egypt court confirms Militants seize Iraq border town mass death sentences BAGHDAD: Shiite fighters paraded in assault might be fracturing, internecine clashes the jihadist Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant MINYA, Egypt: An Egyptian court yester- watchdogs. Baghdad yesterday in a dramatic show of force killed 17 fighters in northern Iraq. Iraqi security (ISIL) already hold parts of the western day confirmed death sentences for more The 183 whose death sentences were aimed at Sunni militants who seized a Syrian forces yesterday announced they were holding province of Anbar, which abuts the Syrian bor- than 180 Islamists, including Muslim confirmed Saturday were convicted of border crossing, widening a western front in their own in several areas north of Baghdad, der, after taking all of one city and parts of Brotherhood chief Mohamed Badie, after involvement in the murder of two police- an offensive threatening to rip Iraq apart. but officials said insurgents led by ISIL seized another earlier in the year. It is unclear what a mass trial that sparked an international men and the attempted murder of five Meanwhile, Washington readied a new diplo- one of three official border crossings with Syria. impact the latest move will have on the overall outcry. The court in the central city of others in Minya province on August 14, matic bid to unite Iraq’s fractious leaders and Militants took control of the area a day after 34 offensive, as militants already have free reign Minya initially sentenced 683 people to the day police killed hundreds of Morsi repel insurgents whose lightning offensive has members of the security forces were killed in along most of the 600-km border, neither side death, but yesterday commuted death supporters in Cairo clashes. They were displaced hundreds of thousands, alarmed the the border town, giving the fighters greater of which is controlled by government forces. sentences of four defendants to life in also found guilty of vandalism, attacking world and put Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki cross-border mobility into conflict-hit Syria. ISIL aims to create an Islamic state that will prison and acquitted 496 others, prose- public property, bearing arms and join- under growing pressure domestically and The takeover of Al-Qaim leaves just one of incorporate both Iraq and Syria, where the cutor Abdel Rahim Abdel Malik told AFP. ing illegal organisations, Abdel Malik overseas. three official border crossings with Syria in the group has become a major force in the rebel- Since the army ousted Islamist president said. Lawyers said most of those sen- And in a sign the broad alliance of jihadists hands of the central government. The third is lion against President Bashar Al-Assad. Mohamed Morsi in July last year, hun- tenced to death are on the run. “The and anti-government elements behind the controlled by Kurdish forces. Insurgents led by Continued on Page 15 dreds of his supporters and Badie himself defence lawyers were unable to attend have been sentenced to death in trials the trial and defend their clients. The roundly criticised by human rights court violated the defendants’ rights of defence and gave its decision quickly,” said one, Mohammed Tosson, adding they intended to appeal. Journalists were barred from attending the trial. The decision came after the court referred its initial April ruling to the country’s top Islamic scholar, as required under Egypt’s legal system. Defence lawyer Khaled Elkomy said the case was full of “flaws”. “The judge referred 683 defendants to the grand mufti because he believed that they were guilty... he then returned and acquitted most of them,” he said. “This shows that the judge did not even study the case properly.” In March, the same court reduced to life in prison 492 of 529 death sentences passed on another batch of Morsi sup- porters. Outside the court yesterday, as masked policemen stood guard, relatives reacted to the verdict, with some cele- brating and others mourning. “I swear that my brother has nothing to do with politics and the Muslim Brotherhood. He MINYA, Egypt: An Egyptian man reacts does not even pray,” said Ahmed, 40, of outside a courtroom yesterday after a his brother who was sentenced to death. court confirmed death sentences for Another man expressed relief. BELO HORIZONTE, Brazil: Iran’s goalkeeper Alireza Haghighi dives but fails to stop a goal by Argentina’s Lionel Messi during a Group F 183 Islamists. — AFP Continued on Page 15 World Cup match at the Mineirao Stadium yesterday. Argentina defeated Iran 1-0. — AP (See Page 19) p2 COPY_Layout 1 6/21/14 11:06 PM Page 1 LOCAL SUNDAY, JUNE 22, 2014 Photo of the day A jet-skier surfs in front of people on a beach in Salmiya area yesterday, as temperatures reached over 50 degreees Celcius in Kuwait.