Jordan Times
Sunday, April 26, 1998
Jordanians, Palestinians to visit jailed relatives in
Kuwait next month
KUWAIT (AP) — A group of 41 Jordanians and Palestinians will
arrive next month to visit family members imprisoned in Kuwait,
an interior ministry official said Saturday.
The visit, like the three previous ones since 1995, was at the
request of the International Committee of the Red Cross, which
will also pay the expenses, Colonel Hamed Al Refaei told
reporters.
Relations between Kuwait and Jordan were strained because of the
Kingdom’s perceived tilt toward Baghdad after Iraqi troops
invaded Kuwait in August 1990.
Col. Refaei, who heads the ministry’s department that
coordinates work with international organisations, said Kuwait
was keen on facilitating these visits because it respects human
rights and international agreements.
Sixteen members of the families are children, he said. They are
coming to see 25 prisoners, including one woman.
The families are scheduled to arrive May 4 and stay for three
days.
The inmates are serving prison terms of up to seven years for
collaborating with Iraqis during the seven-month Iraqi
occupation, and for other crimes they were convicted of since the
1991 liberation.