CAIRO: Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit refuted allegations that there was any Egyptian involvement in the arrest and subsequent deportation of supporters of Mohamed ElBaradei in Kuwait.
His statements were given Sunday before heading to Washington to attend a nuclear summit. Aboul Gheit said these allegations were “refused, unacceptable and irresponsible.
He added that the Egyptian embassy in Kuwait was following up the matter with Kuwaiti authorities.
Thirty-three Egyptians residing in Kuwait were arrested on April 8 and 9 for wanting to form a branch of the National Coalition for Change, the group headed by former IAEA chief ElBaradei to call for constitutional change in Egypt. Twenty-one were later deported and eight remain in detention in Kuwait.
Kuwaiti Ambassador to Cairo Rashid Al-Hamad said that the Egyptians were deported because they had broken Kuwaiti law by gathering without a permit, which is a law that applies to both Kuwaitis and expatriates.
However, it is Article 12 of Kuwait’s 1979 law regarding public gatherings that prevents non-citizens from amassing for protests or any form of public gathering.
The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry released a press statement in which it requested that expats conform to the laws of the country, which prohibits any political gatherings or protests that may harm Kuwait’s relations with another country.
However, Al-Shorouk newspaper published a report Monday that claimed that the arrests were carried out in coordination with Egypt, according to unnamed Kuwaiti and Egyptian officials quoted in the article.
The newspaper claimed that the Egyptian embassy in Kuwait had been notified of the arrests beforehand and that no objections were made. A Kuwaiti official told the paper that although the gathering was against the law, Kuwait also “has a lot of respect and appreciation for President Hosni Mubarak.
Human Rights Watch called on Kuwaiti authorities to rescind the detentions and deportations, with its Middle East and North Africa director Sarah Leah Whitson saying, “Kuwait is enabling Egypt’s repression by harassing ElBaradei supporters . Kuwait only selectively enforces its restrictions on freedom of assembly, which in any event violates a basic human right to freely assemble and express views.
