The Detriment of Innocence

15/05/07 22:01 Filed in: Kuwait

OM2365
On the offset, I’d like to explicitly underline that my position is not in favor of a particular side involved in the current topical debate in Kuwait today-the protection of public funds. I would like, through this article however, to provide a refined kaleidoscope through which we can holistically view the issue. The discourse appears to be in favor of shifting the issue from a legal to a public matter. More specifically, the National Assembly is currently undertaking a leading role in providing their perspectives on the issue of public funds. Concentrating on a long outstanding case, and the most pertinent, the purloining of funds allocated to the Kuwait Oil Tanker Company. The Kuwaiti constitution clearly states the right of an accused to due process. In other words, one is entitled to a free, open and transparent trial and remains innocent until proven guilty. In Kuwait the detriment of this ‘innocence’ seems to be turning the state into a charade in the following ways:

1)The accussed, namely Sheikh Ali Al-Sabah, is condemned in the eyes of the public, although he has yet to be tried directly in this matter and as such his innocence, at this point, is useless given that this condemnation appears to be fixated. MPs who appear to hold on this course, while implying that he may be innocent, are actually condemning him, contrary to his legal rights as a citizen. The recent uproar in parliament where the Minister of Oil was subjugated to serious questioning as to his relationship with Ali Al-Sabah is a crystallized example of this.

2)We seem to know two specific names on the KOTC case: Abdulfattah Al-Bader and Sheikh Ali Al-Sabah, and a third person who seems to have vanished from the case altogether, Mr. Qabazard. In most Kuwaiti diwanays, or conversations that address this topic, there seems to be a lack of knowledge on the two outstanding persons involved. Given the magnitude of this issue, I would assume that it would only be right to treat all five on equal footage.

3)Sheikh Ali Al-Sabah’s right to a due process requires for him to be in a tried! Naturally, a factor that seems to be creating the current outrage is the unparalleled immunity that he seems to posses. If he is innocent and to this day, legally he is (see point one), then as citizens of Kuwait, we deserve to know for certain that he was not involved, and equally so, there is a need to enact concrete measures to handle the cases of all of those involved in this case, whether directly or discretely. And therefore his unconfirmed innocence renders his public, yet unofficial condemnation.

Finally, I wish to point that while the KOTC case is an unmatched case in Kuwait, or the region for that matter, it is not the only case of assault on public funds. And while the current debate in the National Assembly and elsewhere appear to be a healthy step, they are not sufficient. The assaults were possible, and remain possible due to the inadequate procedures that are in place to ensure that public funds are protected. As such, my advice to MPs and Kuwaitis is to capitalize on the current momentum to not only ensure that the accused are brought to justice, but even more so to avowedly state, “NEVER AGAIN!”

**UPDATE** 05/15/2007

I was surfing the web and went into the archives of Mohammed Al-Jasem's blog. I just found out that in the past two years he has NEVER written a single article on the KOTC case or any other related to the assaults on public funds--hmm, I wonder why?!


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