KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s Islamic Affairs Minister, accused by a senior US official of promoting jihad in Syria, was reported yesterday as saying he will stay on after his resignation was rejected.
Al Qabas daily cited Nayef Al Ajmi as saying he will remain in the post after a request from the “political leadership” following a meeting on Sunday.
“I will obey the orders of the political leadership and will continue along the same path I have started,” Ajmi, who is also justice minister, said. Ajmi, who strongly denied the US accusations, said on Friday he had tendered his resignation, citing health problems.
The US Treasury Undersecretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, David Cohen, charged earlier this year that Ajmi “has a history of promoting jihad in Syria”.
His appointment as minister in January was a “step in the wrong direction”, Cohen said in a lecture in the United States, parts of which were carried by the Kuwait press last month.
Iraq executes two convicted on
terror charges
BAGHDAD: Iraq executed two people convicted on anti-terror charges yesterday, the justice ministry said, despite international condemnation of Baghdad’s use of the death penalty and criticism of the country’s judicial system.
The executions, carried out by hanging, were the first to be confirmed since March 13, and brought to at least 46 the total number of people put to death so far this year, according to an AFP tally based on statements from the justice ministry and officials.
The ministry “carried out the hangings on death row of two convicted terrorists for terror crimes,” it said in a statement that was accompanied by a photograph of a noose.
The two men executed were Sajid Hamid Ibrahim and Ali Majid Ulaiwi, the statement said.
Ibrahim was convicted for joining a group linked to Al Qaeda and killing two brothers, while Ulaiwi was put to death for kidnapping three men and killing them.
Iraq has faced widespread criticism from diplomats, analysts and human rights groups who say that due to a flawed justice system, those being executed are not necessarily guilty of the crimes for which they were sentenced to die.
Agencies
