Six Kuwaitis and stateless Arabs, accused of joining a terrorist group linked to al Qaeda and planning an attack against US troops in Kuwait, have been sentenced to death today, AP reported.
The six convicts are part of a larger group of 37 which clashed with the Kuwait police in January. Prosecutors demanded death penalty for several militants in the group called the Peninsula Lions Brigade, but the rest
of them were acquitted or received imprisonment sentences.
According to the news agency, the defense team said that militants were planning to go to Iraq and fight against the coalition forces and did not plan to attack Kuwait.
"I believe those young men have been deceived, and the way to deal with it is not tough sentences," thee defense lawyer Khaled al-Abdul-Jalil said.
"They readied themselves only for jihad in Iraq. After seeing the crimes of the Americans in Iraq, including killing Muslim children and women, they believed that jihad was their duty", he added
During the trial, several convicts told the court that they were forced to testify.
"I asked them to have mercy on me because I had undergone an operation on my right testicle, so they lashed me on it with a stick," Hussam Youssef Abdul-Rahim said.
Another one said that he was taken by investigators to see Al-Enezi, leader of the group, who had been "cut to pieces".
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