Trial opens for Iraq's agents accused of bid to kill Bush

[BAHAA ELKOUSSY]

CAIRO, Egypt (UPI) -- Fourteen people, including 12 suspected Iraqi
intelligence agents, went on trial Saturday in Kuwait on charges of
planning to assassinate former President Bush during his visit to the
emirate earlier this year, Kuwait City Radio reported.
The accused, mostly Iraqis, appeared in a special metal cage at the
heavily guarded Kuwaiti State Security Court for the opening of the
trial in which they are charged with ``forming a terrorist network''
that planned to kill the man who forged the allied coalition that drove
Iraq from Kuwait in 1991.
Kuwaiti prosecutor Mohamed Al Bani, the report said, accused the
defendants with planning to kill Bush with a car bomb or a suicide
bomber during his visit last April, his first since the Persian Gulf
War.
Kuwaiti authorities disclosed the plan and announced the arrest of
the group only days after the end of Bush's festive visit to the
emirate, in which he was praised for his role in liberating Kuwait.
Kuwaiti officials said the Iraqi intelligence agents infiltrated
their country to carry out a number of terrorist and subversive acts,
including the assassination of Bush, but were discovered before any
plans were implemented.
Baghdad has denied any involvement and accused Kuwait and the United
States of trying to create an excuse to attack Iraq.
The government published and displayed pictures and footages of those
agents with car bombs, arms and explosives intended for use in the
planned attacks.
The country's State Security Prosecution demanded the death penalty
for 11 Iraqi defendants and one Kuwaiti for their direct involvement in
the plans. It has reportedly asked five-year imprisonment for two other
Kuwaitis for ``unwittingly'' harboring the agents.
The British Broadcasting Corp. reported that two of the defendants
pleaded guilty to the charges, but did not say how the others pleaded.
Iraqis and some of their Arab sympathizers questioned the fairness of
the trial, which could last months, at a time when anti-Iraq emotions in
Kuwait remain intense two years after Iraqi troops were driven out of
the oil-rich emirate.
Skeptics note that four of seven Kuwaiti attorneys appointed to
defend the accused refused to accept the assignment.
Human rights organizations have criticized as hasty and unfair
Kuwait's post-Gulf War trials of suspected agents of Iraq and others
charged with cooperating with the Iraqi occupation authorities during
the seven-month occupation.
The United States sent representatives of the Justice Department and
FBI to Kuwait to examine the evidence and results of Kuwaiti
interrogations. Reports said they indicated they are convinced Iraq was
involved.
Washington vowed unspecified measures against Iraq if it was proved
that Baghdad engaged in state terrorism by planning and financing the
assassination attempt.