Al-Jazeera Net - Kuwait

Today’s session of the Kuwaiti National Assembly witnessed verbal clashes and fights in the hands of a number of deputies, which followed the screams of the audience, some of whom took the initiative in exchanging words, which required the parliament’s guards to remove the public from the hall.

Today’s session included in its schedule a discussion of many topics, the most important of which is the proposal to amend the Social Insurance Law, as well as four proposals related to amnesty for those convicted of some crimes.

The list of proposals for a comprehensive amnesty included a proposal submitted by five deputies, which, according to the report of the Legislative Committee, specialized in crimes that occurred on November 16 and 17, 2011.

Those events were known as the "storming the parliament" case, in which some seventy citizens, most of them deputies and activists, were charged, and in July 2018 the Court of Cassation issued final prison sentences of more than three years to 13 defendants, including eight former representatives, and it refrained from pronouncing the punishment of the majority of the defendants. Others.

And the deputies affiliated with the opposition movement who decided to run in the elections, after the one-law law crisis, are seeking to grant a comprehensive amnesty to those convicted in the case by adopting legislation in this regard, and they had previously submitted a proposed law in 2017 rejecting its time before the Court of Cassation issued its final rulings.

Thamer Al-Sweit climbs the stage ..
To stop voting on the chapter ..
And evacuate the #Nation Council ..

It remains the angular who threatens
Hamdan Al-Azmi ..

He says (Today we sleep at your time)
Verde Faraj Farid expelled
This racist from the hall ..

Greetings to the brave .. @ alarbeedfaraj @ThamerAlsuwait

pic.twitter.com/9FKUjGIU4p

- Fahd Nasser Al-Janfawi .. (@ fhd_007) February 18, 2020

Emiri pardon
Most of the former lawmakers who were sentenced against the background of the case reside outside Kuwait, and three accused have returned from among the convicts, including the two former representatives, Walid Al-Tabtabae, Fahd al-Khanna and activist Muhammad Nayef Al-Dossari.

The three lodged an amnesty request from the emir of the country, Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, coupled with an apology for what had happened, and the authorities released them after they spent in the central prison several days to implement the sentences issued against them.

The list of proposals also included two law proposals from the two representatives Khaled Al-Shatti and Khalil Abel, who are Shiite deputies, the first of which was to pardon the accused of the so-called Abdali cell, and the second for the crimes that the former MP Abdel Hamid Dashti and ten cases were sentenced to.

In August 2015, the Kuwaiti Ministry of the Interior announced the disclosure of a cell consisting of 25 Kuwaitis and Iranians accused of cooperating with Iran and Hezbollah and stockpiling weapons in the border region of Abdali.

In December 2019, the Court of Cassation issued final rulings against a number of defendants covering up fugitive convicts in the same case, including prominent cleric Hussein al-Maatouq, and the same court acquitted a number of defendants.

A number of deputies submitted a fourth proposal for a law aimed at forgiving defendants in cases related to insulting the relationship of Kuwait with friendly and brotherly countries, or spreading false news regarding internal conditions during the period from January 2011 to December 2019.

Video || A citizen recounted what happened just now on the #Nation Council pic.twitter.com/LyYIm6r4LS

- Echoes (@ AsdaaQ8) February 18, 2020

Audience intertwined
Eng. Ali Mubarak, an eyewitness from the audience, said that today’s session witnessed, in addition to the overlapping of deputies, that one of the audience members was violating the reasons against MP Hamdan Al-Azmi.

Al-Mubarak added to Al-Jazeera Net that the speaker of the parliament tried to meet the demands of the parliament to separate the proposals, but some began screaming and deliberately sabotaging the session, describing what happened as "far from democratic practice."

And 15 deputies issued a statement on the events in which they attributed to the Speaker of the Council, Marzouq Al-Ghanem, committing what they said were fatal constitutional and legal errors, confirming that there was confusion in the papers and harming the national interest by discussing important issues in a few minutes, holding the council president responsible.

In their statement, the deputies confirmed that they will discuss in the coming days appropriate political and constitutional options regarding what happened.

The deputy of the Islamic Constitutional Movement, "Intuition", Osama Al-Shaheen, conveyed to Al-Jazeera Net some aspect of the events, indicating that the session witnessed the merging of the four proposals with laws despite their differences. To them, which caused the session to strain.

He added that the council chairman ignored a request made by the owners of the proposal as well to withdraw it from the agenda and not vote on it, which is their right, noting that members of the government voted against the two options, which led to an increase in tension and events.

📌 | Today's events of the Kuwaiti National Assembly .. pic.twitter.com/K6DHGnneCj

- Stubborn Al-Otaibi 🇸🇦 (@ENAD_Alotaibi) February 18, 2020

He stated that it was unfortunate to merge the proposal with other proposals, some of which were completely different, such as pardoning members of the Abdali cell belonging to foreign terrorist parties and entities.

Al-Shaheen stressed that there is exaggerated violence towards the public, and that it is urgent to remove them from the hall in a way that could expose them or expose the council guards to injury, stressing that this behavior is the responsibility of the council chairman because the guards are instructing him to do so.

Representative Abdullah Al-Kandari said that he and many of his colleagues were distressed by the violence and the use of force with the public, and prevented them from their right to monitor what is happening inside the Abdullah Al-Salem hall, "the seat of the Kuwaiti parliament."

Al-Kandari added to Al-Jazeera Net that the issue of amnesty concerns a broad segment of society, and despite that, it was dealt with quickly and in violation of the regulations in force in the Council.

He pointed out that there is a big difference between those who were arrested and in possession of thirty kilograms of explosives and 19 tons of weapons that are sufficient to equip a military company for a month - in reference to the representatives of the Abdali cell - and between those who acted according to his vision to fight corruption and confront the infringement of public money and the result Entering the council without carrying a weapon.

Al-Ghanem described what happened as a play, stressing that some objection to merging the proposals was followed by submitting a proposal for dismissal, but that some of the sponsors of the comprehensive amnesty law rejected it.

Al-Ghanem confirmed in an interview after the session that a member - whom he did not name - assaulted the Secretary-General of the Council, Allam Al-Kandari, and withdrew the microphone during the voting, describing what happened as an attempt by parties he described as corrupt to atone for society in democracy.