SUBSCRIPTION TUESDAY, MAY 7, 2013 JAMADA ALTHANI 27, 1434 AH www.kuwaittimes.net Bahraini MPs PM sworn in Bieber fan LeBron James call on US as opposition disrupts named NBA envoy to end protests Dubai Most Valuable ‘interference’9 Malaysia10 poll Concert40 Player20 Convictions of spy ring Max 36º Min 20º upheld, oppn slams Iran High Tide 10:12 & 23:05 Assembly panel has key info on Dow deal Low Tide 04:03 & 16:48 40 PAGES NO: 15801 150 FILS By B Izzak the husband of the woman defendant who is also the charges during all degrees of trials in the three courts and conspiracy theories daughter of one of the Iranians sentenced to life in prison. claimed they had been tortured to extract confessions from KUWAIT: The court of cassation yesterday upheld life terms About two years ago, the criminal court sentenced the them. The men were convicted of passing confidential mili- on two Iranians, a Kuwaiti and a stateless man for being two Iranians and the Kuwaiti to death, the stateless and the tary information on Kuwaiti and US militaries in Kuwait to members of a spying ring that passed information about Syrian to life and acquitted the remaining two. In May last the Iranian Revolutionary Guards through diplomats at the The Iran the Kuwaiti and US militaries to Iran. The court also upheld year, the appeals court however reduced the death sen- Iranian embassy in Kuwait. They were also charged of plot- the acquittal of two Iranians, including the only woman in tences on the three men to life in jail, maintained the life ting to blow up some key oil pipelines in the north of the the ring, and a Syrian national. The two Iranians and the term on the stateless man and acquitted the Syrian and the country. Iran has repeatedly denied that its intelligence was obsession Kuwaiti who received life terms were active soldiers in the two others. The cassation court’s verdict is final and cannot involved in the spy ring and even condemned Kuwait after Kuwaiti army when they were arrested in May 2010, while be challenged. Only HH the Amir has the power to com- the appeals court issued its verdict last year. It had called on the fourth man is an ex-soldier in the Kuwaiti army. The two mute the sentences. Kuwait to release the defendants. Iranians and the stateless are brothers while the Kuwaiti is All the spy ring members have categorically denied the Continued on Page 5 By Badrya Darwish Flashy cop cars for bling-bling Dubai [email protected] salute Ali Al-Rashed, the Speaker of the House, for the candid interview he gave to Al Arabiya. IThe Speaker gave his true impression as a citizen on what Kuwait is currently going through. It was courageous of him to say that Iran is not a threat to the Gulf countries. I agree with his looking at what is going on around us in the Arab world - conspira- cies, wars and mushrooming of weapons of mass destruction. The West is leading the campaign claiming that Iran is ready to cross the border of almost any Gulf country and invade us all. Of course the West has a long history of selling its arsenal to all of us. Why not the rich oil countries buy more arms and more arms and more arms. Of course only Israel has an interest to hit Iran. However, they have to convince the Arab world DUBAI: (Clockwise from above) that it is in danger and needs more arms. They have Bentley, Mercedes SLS and Aston to convince the Gulf and some of its neighbours Martin One-77 Dubai police cars are on that in order to protect themselves, maybe they display during the Arabian Travel have to build what is called the Iron Dome. Maybe Market (ATM) at the Dubai World Trade they will come and convince the Gulf countries to Centre yesterday. Dubai police have pay billions of dollars to set an early warning sys- introduced top end sports cars to their tem to detect advanced Iranian ballistic missiles. patrol fleet to further strengthen the Going back to the interview with Ali Al-Rashed. image of “luxury and prosperity” of the The Speaker drew a pessimistic picture about the emirate. — AFP Gulf union. I agree with him. Each country has its own rules, functioning, constitution and regula- tions. The countries cannot be on any union level except what we already have - we travel with our 4 Saudis held over IDs and customs regulations are facilitated. Of Gulf union ‘just course, we also have security cooperation on many levels. As for the common single Gulf currency: I Tanzania bombing say: “forget it.” The topic died on its own much earli- a wish’: Rashed er before the collapse of the euro. Every country in the Gulf insisted on preserving its monetary sover- Prez cuts short Kuwait visit eignty. Every country is busy protecting its own Speaker doesn’t see Iran a threat DAR ES SALAAM: Tanzania has arrested A statement from President Jakaya interests. So does the Gulf. four men from Saudi Arabia and four Kikwete’s office yesterday said two people The only country which has an interest in attack- KUWAIT: National Assembly Speaker Ali Al- union is “just a wish” that is recommended Tanzanians in connection with the bomb- had now died from the blast after the ing Iran is Israel and it wants somebody else to do Rashed expressed on Sunday his reticence every now and then. There should be a “leg- ing of church yesterday that killed two death toll had previously been put at one. the job for them. It looks like the United States is on forming a union that brings together the islative convention” that is agreed upon by people, an attack that has heightened Sixty people were injured. The president’s not going to be directly involved with this countries that make up the Gulf all Gulf countries in order to achieve a GCC sectarian tensions in the east African office said Kikwete had cut short his state Netanyahu obsession. Wherever he goes around Cooperation Council (GCC). Rashed union, he said. nation. Investigators said they were still visit to Kuwait following the bomb attack the world, Netanyahu always discusses Iran’s explained in an interview with Al Arabiya In his interview with Al Arabiya, Rashed determining the type of device used in on the church. The Vatican’s ambassador nuclear program. He thinks the whole world shares that constitutional differences between Gulf touched on the political controversy in the attack on the Catholic church in to Tanzania, Archbishop Francisco his views. Isn’t this the perfect way to distract the countries and the uniqueness of each state’s Kuwait, adding that there are groups that Arusha, a town in the north of the nation Montecillo Padilla, was attending the offi- world’s attention from his atrocities in Palestine and domestic affairs makes it difficult to form a aim to hurt the government but not over- of about 45 million people that is roughly cial opening of the church when the the West Bank? union. As the GCC celebrates its anniversary throw it. evenly split between Muslims and explosion occurred. He escaped this month, Rashed suggested that the GCC Continued on Page 5 Christians. unharmed. — Agencies 36 killed as Bangladesh Syria threatens to hit Israel cracks down on Islamists Strikes killed at least 42 soldiers DHAKA: Bangladeshi police broke up a protest by tens of thousands of religious hardliners and shut down Islamist television stations yesterday as 36 people died in DAMASCUS: Israeli air raids on Syria at the weekend killed some of the fiercest street violence for decades. Hundreds more were injured in at least 42 soldiers, a watchdog said yesterday, fuelling running battles as riot police broke up the rally near a commercial district in a pre- international concern over a spillover of the conflict, as dawn raid in the capital Dhaka. Dozens of demonstrators were also arrested, while Damascus warned it would strike back. UN human rights the leader of the protests was put on a plane to the country’s second city investigator Carla del Ponte, meanwhile, said that rebels Chittagong. — AFP (See Page 9) have used the deadly nerve agent sarin in their fight to oust Syria’s regime, although a commission of inquiry later said there was no conclusive proof. “At least 42 soldiers were killed in the strikes, and another 100 who would usu- ally be at the targeted sites remain unaccounted for,” Syrian Observatory for Human Rights director Rami Abdel Rahman told AFP. The strikes early on Sunday near Damascus were the Jewish state’s second reported air raids on Syria in 48 hours. An early Friday raid had targeted a weapons storage facility at Damascus airport. A senior Israeli source said the raids targeted Iranian weapons destined for the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Iran and the Shiite group Hezbollah are steadfast allies of Syrian President Bashar Al- Assad’s regime, and arch-foes of Israel. A Syrian official in Damascus, reached by phone from Beirut, warned “Syria will respond to the Israeli aggression and will choose the DHAKA: An injured Islamist activist is carried away during a protest to moment to do so.” “It might not be immediate because TEHRAN: An Syrian man wrapped in a Syrian flag with a portrait of President demand that the government enact an anti-blasphemy law yesterday. — AP Israel now is on high alert,” he added. “We will wait but we Bashar Al-Assad walks past anti-riot police during an anti-Israeli demonstration will answer.” —AFP (See Page 10) in front of the UN office yesterday.