Kuwait and Bahrain Heighten Tensions with Iran as Sham Court Cases Prosecuted

Court Cases in Kuwait and Bahrain Heighten Tensions with Iran
29 May, 2012 – Shirin Moradi – insideIran

A Kuwaiti appeals court last week mitigated the sentences of four Iranians charged with participating in an espionage ring linked to the Iranian government, an accusation categorically denied by Iran.

The court commuted the sentence of three individuals- two Iranians and a Kuwaiti national – formerly sentenced with the death penalty under suspicion of conducting intelligence activities for Iran to life imprisonment due to their tenure in the Kuwaiti army until May 2010, according to the BBC Persian Service. The court also acquitted an Iranian man and woman and a Syrian, but upheld the life sentence for a stateless man who had previously faced the same charges.

In May 2010, Kuwaiti sources reported that a group of informants — several of whom were officers in the Kuwaiti army- were arrested for leaking information to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) about American military facilities in Kuwait, which are used as a transit point for delivering supplies and troops to U.S. military forces stationed in Iraq. The Iranian government, however, adamantly refuted these allegations.

The iterative nature of the accusations made against Iran by Gulf States shows the growing geopolitical tensions between Shiite Iran and its Sunni-led Arab neighbors- particularly Saudi Arabia- in the Gulf Cooperation Council in the wake of the Arab spring protests. On May 27, a Bahraini court also reportedly sentenced several individuals for collecting intelligence for Iran.

The high-profile case sparked tensions between Iran and Kuwait, which escalated into a bilateral expulsion of diplomats and a breakdown in relations. Following a visit by Iranian foreign minister Ali Akbar Salehi to Kuwait City in May 2011, ambassadors and diplomats from the two countries returned to their respective duties and Kuwaiti-Iranian relations were restored.

In response to the Kuwaiti decision to exonerate several of the spies, Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast on May 29, during his weekly press briefing, denounced the accusations against Iran as spurious and “baseless and unfounded” and emphasized that the Islamic Republic rejected these claims.

Mehmanparast further described the accusations against the Iranian nationals and the Iranian government as “fictional scenarios” and indicated that it would behoove countries of the region to “stay out of these games.”

The defendants maintained their innocence throughout the trial and claimed that the confessions used against them in court had been made under torture. Throughout the trial, the defendants claimed that the frequent trips they had made to Iran were for tourism and for medical treatment, rather than for engagement in intelligence activities. According to a dispatch from Bloomberg, the Iranian consulate has not been allowed to meet with the accused throughout the course of the trial.

The case will now proceed to the Kuwaiti Supreme Court for its final adjudication. …more