Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance & Other Ill Treatment In the early years of the 21st Century, 2000 to
2025 gvnet.com/torture/Kuwait.htm
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CAUTION: The following links
have been culled from the web to illuminate the situation in Kuwait. Some of these links may lead to websites
that present allegations that are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to validate their authenticity or to verify their content. HOW TO USE THIS WEBPAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Torture by Authorities are of
particular interest to you. You might
be interested in exploring the moral justification for inflicting pain or
inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment in order to obtain critical
information that may save countless lives, or to elicit a confession for a
criminal act, or to punish someone to teach him a lesson outside of the
courtroom. Perhaps your paper might
focus on some of the methods of torture, like fear, extreme temperatures,
starvation, thirst, sleep deprivation, suffocation, or immersion in freezing
water. On the other hand, you might
choose to write about the people acting in an official capacity who
perpetrate such cruelty. There is a
lot to the subject of Torture by Authorities.
Scan other countries as well as this one. Draw comparisons between activity in
adjacent countries and/or regions.
Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Kuwait U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/kuwait/
[accessed 26 July
2021] TORTURE AND OTHER
CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT The constitution
and law prohibit torture and other cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or
punishment, but there continued to be reports of torture and mistreatment by
police and security forces against detained members of minority groups and
noncitizens. Several noncitizens
claimed police or Kuwaiti State Security (KSS) force members beat them at
police checkpoints or in detention. Since 2017, at least nine foreign
nationals, including one still in detention, reported credible cases of abuse
or mistreatment during arrest or interrogation by the Ministry of Interior’s
Drug Enforcement General Directorate. Some detainees alleged they were beaten
with a wooden rod, hung upside down and beaten, or both. PRISON AND DETENTION
CENTER CONDITIONS According to the
National Assembly’s Human Rights Committee, prisons lacked the minimum
standards of cleanliness and sanitation, were overcrowded, and suffered from
widespread corruption in management, resulting in prisoner safety problems
and drug abuse by inmates. International observers who visited the Central
Prison corroborated reports of drug use and trafficking. Physical
Conditions: Prison overcrowding continued to be a significant problem during
the pandemic. Prisoners share large dormitory cells designed to accommodate
20-30 inmates. Prisoners at the facilities reported it was common for double
or triple that number of prisoners to be held in one cell. Inmates
incarcerated at Central Prison said the prison cells were so overcrowded that
they were forced to sleep on the floor of their cells, on mattresses in the
hallway outside their cells, or share beds with other inmates. ARREST PROCEDURES
AND TREATMENT OF DETAINEES Numerous activists representing
a particular group of stateless persons known as “Bidoon” reported
mistreatment at the hands of authorities while in detention. There continued
to be allegations from individuals that they were subjected to unlawful
detention and physical and verbal abuse inside police centers and State
Security detention centers. There are credible indications that police, KSS
force members, and the Ministry of Interior’s Drug Enforcement General
Directorate abused prisoners during arrest or interrogation. Transgender
individuals have reported multiple cases of rape and physical and verbal
abuse at the hands of police and prison officials. Freedom House
Country Report 2018 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/kuwait/freedom-world/2018 [accessed 13 May
2020] F3. IS THERE PROTECTION FROM THE ILLEGITIMATE
USE OF PHYSICAL FORCE AND FREEDOM FROM WAR AND INSURGENCIES? The Constitution
prohibits torture and other forms of cruel and unusual punishment, but these
protections are not always upheld. Detainees, especially bidoon,
continue to experience torture and beatings while in custody. Overcrowding
and unsanitary conditions are a problem at prisons and deportation centers. Kuwait urged to probe
torture claims of detained bidoon Agence France-Presse AFP, 2 April 2014 [accessed 3 April
2014] Prosecutors have
rejected demands by brothers Abdulhakim and Abdulnasser al-Fadhli and
Abdullah al-Enezi to investigate, New York-based
HRW said. “Instead of ordering an
investigation when these defendants said they had been tortured, the
prosecutor ordered them back to detention,” said Eric Goldstein, deputy
Middle East and North Africa director at HRW.
“When a prosecutor ignores torture allegations, it sends the message
to police that abuse will go unpunished,” he said. The Fadhli brothers, who have been arrested and tried at
least twice in the past two years, face charges of instigating illegal
protests and assaulting police, while Enezi is
accused of insulting the Gulf state’s ruling emir. Abdulhakim told
HRW from jail that they were repeatedly beaten by police and authorities had
turned down their requests for a medical examination. Cops sentenced to
death over torture Agence France-Presse AFP, 17 June 2013 [accessed 18 June
2013] Kuwait’s supreme
court on Monday sentenced to death two police officers convicted of torturing
a citizen to death, overturning terms of life imprisonment issued by lower
courts. The court jailed
four other officers for 15 years each and a fifth for two years, and also
ordered their dismissal from the police force, according to a written
verdict. Two other policemen were
each fined 75 dinars, while the remaining 11 defendants were acquitted,
including two foreigners who worked at the police station. All 20 defendants
were charged with torturing four detainees in January 2011. One of the
victims, 35-year-old Mohammad Ghazzai Al Mutairi, died of his injuries. The four were tortured at a location in
the desert and later at a police station, where they were accused of
merchandising alcohol — a charge that was proven false. The incident caused
shock in Kuwait and led to the resignation of former interior minister Shaikh
Jaber Khaled Al Sabah, a member of the ruling
family. A parliamentary investigation
panel at the time found that Mutairi had apparently
been subjected to severe torture for six days, including three days in a
remote desert location. Conclusions and
recommendations of the Committee against Torture U.N. Convention
against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or
Punishment -- Doc. CAT/C/KWT/CO/2
(2011) www1.umn.edu/humanrts/cat/observations/kuwait2011.html [accessed 2 March
2013] Fundamental legal
safeguards 8. While noting
that the Code of Criminal Procedure (17/60) and the Prison Regulation Act
(26/1962) contain provisions providing some legal safeguards to detainees
such as the right to have access to a lawyer, to notify a relative, to be
informed about the charges laid against them and to appear before a judge
within a time limit in accordance with international standards, the Committee
notes with concern that these provisions are little respected. In addition,
while noting that article 75 of the Code of Criminal Procedure guarantees to
an accused person the right to hire a lawyer to defend him or her and attend
the interrogation session, the Committee is concerned that the lawyers may
only speak with the permission of the investigator (art. 2). The State party
should promptly take effective measures to ensure that all detainees are
afforded, in practice, all fundamental legal safeguards from the very outset
of the detention, including the rights to have prompt access to a lawyer and
an independent medical examination, to notify a relative, to be informed of
their rights at the time of detention, including about the charges laid
against them, and to appear before a judge within a time limit in accordance
with international standards. Monitoring and
inspection of places of detention 9. The Committee takes
note of the statement in the replies to the list of issues that, according to
the Judiciary Reorganization Act (23/1990), Act No. 26 of 1962 and article 56
of decree-law No. 23 of 1990, the Kuwaiti legislation guarantees several
types of control and supervision over prisons. However, the Committee is
concerned at the lack of systematic and effective monitoring of all places of
detention, including regular and unannounced visits to such places by
national and international monitors (art. 2). The Committee calls
upon the State party to establish a national system to effectively monitor
and inspect all places of detention and follow up on the outcome of such
systematic monitoring. This system should include regular and unannounced
visits in order to prevent torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading
treatment or punishment. The State party is encouraged to accept monitoring
of places of detention by relevant international mechanisms. Emir Should Sign
New Detention Bill Human Rights Watch,
New York, 14 May 2012 www.hrw.org/news/2012/05/14/kuwait-emir-should-sign-new-detention-bill [accessed 3 February
2013] “Parliament’s newly
proposed law will be a significant milestone for protecting the due process
rights of detainees in the country,” said Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East
director at Human Rights Watch. “Ending unlimited judicial renewals of
pretrial detention will help eliminate a significant source of the abuse of
detainee rights, and serve as a model for the region.” The new law
shortens the period for which a person can be detained by the police without
an order from an investigator (prosecutor), from four days to 48 hours, and
during that time allows the detainee to contact a lawyer. After the 48-hour
period, the new law would reduce from three weeks to 10 days the period for
which an investigator can hold a detainee for investigation and allows the
detainee to appeal his detention to a court. The court can renew this
investigative pretrial detention for a maximum of 40 days. If the investigator
seeks to lengthen the detention for further investigation, he may do so only
pursuant to a judicial order. The law clearly limits any such court-ordered
extensions of detentions to a maximum of three 30-day extensions, for a
maximum of three months, and allows the detainee to appear before the court
to challenge the extension. International human
rights law requires detainees to be brought promptly before a judge. Pretrial
detention must be the exception, not the rule, and those held in detention
before trial are entitled to a trial within a
reasonable time or release. AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL From an old article -- URL not available Article was
published sometime prior to 2015 TORTURE AND OTHER
ILL-TREATMENT
- Legislation halving the maximum period of police custody without a court
order from four days to two was enacted in July. Reports suggested
that torture or other ill-treatment may have been a factor in the death of Nawaf al-Azmi, one of five
reported cases of deaths in custody. On 24 December, an
Appeal Court upheld the sentences, including two life sentences, of police
officers involved in the death in custody of Mohammad Ghazzai
al-Maimuni al-Mutairi in
2011. Two other officers were fined; all were dismissed from the police. Search … AMNESTY
INTERNATIONAL For current
articles:: Search Amnesty
International Website www.amnesty.org/en/search/?q=kuwait+torture&ref=&year=&lang=en&adv=1&sort=relevance [accessed 6 January 2019] Scroll
Down ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights Reports
» 2005 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 8, 2006 www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61692.htm [accessed 3 February
2013] 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2005/61692.htm [accessed 4 July
2019] TORTURE
AND OTHER CRUEL, INHUMAN, OR DEGRADING TREATMENT OR PUNISHMENT – The law
prohibits such practices; however, some police and members of the security
forces reportedly abused detainees, and there were allegations of torture
during interrogation. Police and security forces were more likely to inflict
such abuse on noncitizens, particularly non-Gulf Arabs and Asians, than on
citizens. The government stated that it investigated all allegations of abuse
and punished at least some of the offenders; however, in most cases the
government did not make either the findings of its investigations or
punishments it imposed public. In February a
citizen journalist claimed security officers beat him with sticks after he
was arrested January 5 on charges of spreading news that harmed the national
interest (see section 2.a.). On May 24, six Islamic militants, whose leader died
in custody (see section 1.a.), suspected of engaging in deadly gun battles
with security forces in January alleged they had been tortured, including
beatings to their backs and on their feet, while in police custody. On
September 6, a court-appointed, independent medical commission confirmed that
the suspects had scars from beatings; however, it did not indicate the
presumed cause or estimated date of the injuries. Defendants have the
right to present evidence in court that they were mistreated during interrogation;
however, the courts frequently dismissed abuse complaints because defendants
were unable to provide physical evidence of abuse. Members of the security
forces routinely concealed their identities during interrogation,
complicating confirmation of abuse. All
material used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107
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ARTICLES. Cite this
webpage as: Patt, Prof. Martin, "Torture by Police, Forced Disappearance
& Other Ill Treatment in the early years of the 21st Century-
Kuwait", http://gvnet.com/torture/Kuwait.htm, [accessed <date>] |
