State prosecutors on Saturday called for the maximum penalty to be given to 37 Islamists accused of involvement in deadly clashes with Kuwaiti police last January, dpa reported. The public prosecutor has demanded the "maximum penalty for all of them," district attorney Saud al-Sane told an afternoon court session at Kuwait City's Justice Palace. Al-Sane did not specify what he meant by "maximum penalty" but prosecutors have already requested in their indictments the death penalty for 34 of the defendants. It was unclear whether the indictments would be expanded to include death for the remaining three. The suspects are accused of joining an illegal extremist group, carrying out acts of terrorism, murdering Kuwaiti policemen, and conspiring to attack foreign troops on Kuwaiti soil. The prosecutor on Saturday also claimed that the suspects conspired to destabilize the country, noting that they smuggled weapons into Kuwait from Iraq, and manufactured large quantities of explosives. Al-Sane identified the group's ringleader as Amer Khalaf al-Anizi, who died on February 8 after being captured following a fierce gun battle with police on January 31. Kuwaiti security forces clashed with the militants in a number of gun battles last January and early February which left four policemen, two civilian bystanders, and eight militants dead. Of the 37 suspects on trial, 19 remain in jail, eight, including one woman have been released on bail, and 10 suspects remain at large. Several of the suspects have claimed to have confessed to the crimes.
