SUBSCRIPTION TUESDAY, APRIL 21, 2015 RAJAB 2, 1436 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Students call China, Pakistan Bader Al-Kharafi Desisa and to increase launch $46bn ranked 2nd most Rotich win majors and economic powerful young Boston scholarships4 corridor11 plan Arab21 personality Marathon20 Supporters rejoice as Min 17º Max 38º High Tide Barrak freed on bail 01:30 & 13:15 Low Tide MPs want probe into alleged change in Islamic textbooks 07:25 & 20:15 40 PAGES NO: 16497 150 FILS By B Izzak Same tax rate KUWAIT: The cassation court yesterday freed promi- nent opposition leader Musallam Al-Barrak on a KD eyed for local, 1,000 bail pending trial, just a week after rejecting a similar request from his defense team. The court also set foreign firms May 18 as the date for the next hearing in the case in which the court is looking into a petition challenging the two-year jail term against the former lawmaker. No income tax Barrak has been in jail since March 1 after he was taken to start serving the jail sentence almost two weeks after KUWAIT: Kuwait is studying proposals to introduce it was passed by the court of appeal. the same tax rates for local and foreign companies, Barrak, the secretary general of the Popular Action Finance Minister Anas Al-Saleh told reporters on the Movement, has been charged with insulting HH the sidelines of a business conference yesterday. “There is Amir in remarks made during a public rally held in Oct a list of taxes on local and foreign companies - there 2012. The former lawmaker was objecting to govern- are suggestions from international institutions to ment plans to amend the electoral law to cut the num- study the unification of the ratios on both sides,” ber of candidates a voter can choose from four to just Saleh said without elaborating on the proposals or one. The criminal court had sentenced Barrak to five saying when they might be approved. years in jail even after lawyers walked out of the court Last month, Minister of Commerce and Industry after the judge refused to call a number of witnesses for Abdulmohsen Al-Mudej, who has since resigned, said testifying. But the appeals court later scrapped the sen- Kuwait was cooperating with the International tence on procedural flaws and decided to conduct the Monetary Fund to discuss introducing a corporate trial itself. It later passed the two-year jail term. tax for local companies. Saleh is now acting com- Barrak’s supporters broke into jubilation after they merce minister in the wake of Mudej’s departure. At heard the decision and chanted “the people want present, Kuwaiti companies generally do not pay tax- Barrak”. The former lawmaker was later released from es on income, although foreign firms pay a levy on the central prison and returned home after his defense commercial activities in the country with the rate on the highest income bracket reaching 55 percent, team paid the bail. “We’re all very happy to see Barrak according to a government website. free, and we are hopeful that the court’s ruling next Introducing a new corporate tax would be a month will be in his favor,” lawyer Thamer Al-Jedaei said. major, politically sensitive policy shift for Kuwait. “We’re glad that he’s out and can be among his support- Pressure on its state finances has increased in recent ers tonight.” months because of the plunge of oil prices, and offi- Last month, a protest in solidarity with Barrak turned cials have said they want to diversify revenue sources violent when hundreds his supporters defied govern- ment regulations and marched from Irada Square beyond oil. There are no plans to introduce income KUWAIT: Supporters celebrate with opposition leader Musallam Al-Barrak after he was released from prison tax for individuals, Saleh added yesterday. — Reuters toward the National Assembly building. yesterday. — Photo by Yasser Al-Zayyat Continued on Page 13 Lebanon receives French Student with crossbow PAGE Qatar refloats idea of PAGE arms funded by Riyadh kills teacher in Spain housing fans on ships BEIRUT: Lebanon yesterday received the years of training for the 70,000-strong first French weapons in a $3 billion Saudi- Lebanese army and 10 years of equipment Saudis alert over oil or mall attack funded program intended to bolster its maintenance. army to take on jihadist threats, particular- At the ceremony yesterday, Lebanon’s ly along its border with Syria. French Defence Minister Samir Mokbel welcomed US warship seeks to block Iran arms Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian the delivery, saying the country’s fight accompanied the first tranche of weapons, against extremism was a common battle. including anti-tank guided missiles, which “A victory for Lebanon against terrorism is News were handed over at an air force base in a victory for all countries, near and far, who in brief Beirut. “France and Lebanon have a frater- are threatened by terrorism,” he said. He nal relationship that has been marked thanked Saudi Arabia for financing the over the past three years by a sharp deteri- weapons delivery and France for “its deep Jewish man stabs oration in the security situation in the understanding of all the threats that Arab in hate attack Levant, which has become an existential Lebanon faces, whether militarily at the JERUSALEM: A man allegedly shouting “death to threat to the region,” Le Drian said. border, or internally with the influx of Arabs” stabbed and wounded an Arab Israeliyesterday “Lebanon is under unprecedented refugees that threatens general stability.” in the town of Herzliya near Tel Aviv, police said. pressure (from jihadist groups)... and this Saudi ambassador to Lebanon Ali Awad Spokeswoman Luba Samri said in a statement that makes border control vital for its security,” Asiri said the kingdom’s financing came as police arrested a local Jewish Israeli suspected of the he added. “In this critical context, it is “Lebanon faces more challenges than attack, in which a municipal cleaner from the Galilee therefore essential that Lebanon’s friends ever”. “The kingdom’s gift will support the village of Kafr Manda was lightly injured. She said the and allies mobilise to contribute to its Lebanese army and legitimacy in suspect confessed to the assault and “claimed he com- security and stability.” Over the next four Lebanon,” he said. “It is support for a legiti- mitted the act for nationalistic reasons”. Since last sum- years, France is expected to deliver to mate army that ensures stability at a time mer’s deadly war in Gaza, tensions have been high Lebanon 250 combat and transport vehi- when Lebanon faces security challenges.” between Jews and Arabs living inside Israel, and there cles, seven Cougar helicopters, three small Despite being on the frontline against has been a series of lone-wolf Palestinian attacks on warships and a range of surveillance and jihadist groups along the border, WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama meets Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi communications equipment. The entire $3 Lebanon’s army remains significantly less Israelis. The Israeli Arab community has its roots in the Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan in the Oval Office of the White House billion cost of the program is being borne well armed than the country’s powerful 160,000 Palestinians who stayed on their land after the yesterday. — AFP creation of Israel in 1948. Today they and their descen- by Saudi Arabia, which has close ties with Hezbollah movement, which is backed by RIYADH/WASHINGTON: Saudi Arabia has On Saturday, guards at the gates of a some of Lebanon’s leading political fig- Riyadh’s regional rival Tehran. dants number around 1.3 million, about 20 percent of the population. put security forces on alert for a possible central Riyadh shopping mall stopped sin- ures. The contract also promises seven Continued on Page 13 militant attack on a shopping mall or gle men from entering and searched the energy installation, Interior Ministry bags of female shoppers, Reuters spokesman Mansour Turki said yesterday. reporters said. In 2006, four Al-Qaeda mili- Belly dancer jailed “There was information about a possible tants breached the gates of Saudi for ‘insulting flag’ act targeting a mall or Aramco installa- Aramco’s Abqaiq plant but did not man- CAIRO: A Cairo court yesterday sentenced an tions. We passed this information to the age to cause significant damage before Armenian belly dancer to six months in jail for security forces to be on alert,” he told being killed in a shootout with security “insulting” Egypt’s national flag during a perform- Reuters. Turki said he had no further infor- guards, Saudi authorities said. ance last year, a judicial official said. The dancer, mation about the threat. Saudi Arabia, However, a US diplomatic cable from widely known as Safinaz, was also fined 15,000 the world’s biggest oil exporter and key the same year released by WikiLeaks quot- Egyptian pounds (about $1,960), but has been strategic ally of the United States, has ed the then-US ambassador as saying he released on bail pending been a target of jihadist militant groups understood that “the attack on Abqaiq appeal. Safinaz went on for years, including Al-Qaeda and Islamic had been much closer to succeeding than trial for wearing a cos- State. generally acknowledged”. At the time, tume that resembled the Riyadh has been carrying out air strikes Abqaiq processed 70 percent of Saudi tri-colored Egyptian flag against Iran-allied Houthi rebels in neigh- crude. Subsequent US cables documented during a performance bouring Yemen since March 26 in a con- American assistance to the Saudis in last year in the Red Sea flict in which nine members of its security strengthening the security of energy infra- resort town of Ain forces have been killed by cross-border structure, including the establishment of a Sokhna.