Kuwaiti emir accepts government’s resignation

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwait’s Emir Sheikh Nawaf Al Ahmed Al Sabah accepted on Sunday, the resignation of the government, state news agency Kuna reported.

Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Khalid Al Sabah submited on Nov.8 the resignation of his cabinet, formed in March.

An Emiri decree asked the outgoing government to remain in a caretaker capacity until a new cabinet is formed, Kuna said.

Separately, Kuwait released a group of prisoners on Sunday pardoned by the emir in an amnesty.

The amnesty also included former MPS in self-exile abroad.

Women threw flower petals as more than 10 prisoners were seen exiting a bus in a parking lot outside the central prison, where more than 200 relatives and friends gathered to meet them, embracing amid chants of “There is no god but God.”

Authorities have so far not disclosed how many convicts were released on Sunday, but one lawyer said 20 had been freed.

“I feel as would anyone wrongly accused who has been released,” said Hassan Daoud, among those convicted in a spying case.

The trial of the alleged cell, was named ater a place where a weapons cache was discovered in a 2015 raid.

The decrees pardoned two members of the alleged cell, along with four convicted of covering for the group, and halved the sentences of 18 others, some of whom had already served the commuted term.

“This amnesty includes all sects in an equal manner,” Fawaz Alkhateeb, a lawyer of one of the men released on Sunday, said at the parking lot, where Shiite clerics also gathered.

The emir on Saturday issued two decrees granting pardons and reduced sentences to 35 people, including former lawmakers in self-exile in Turkey.

The country’s highest court sentenced several lawmakers to years in prison, including Musallam Al Barrack, a major opposition leader who had also served a two-year sentence on separate charges.