Kuwait summoned Iran’s envoy in protest on Wednesday after Tehran denied that one of its citizens, sentenced to death in Kuwait, was involved in an assassination plot against a senior government figure. Earlier this week, two Kuwaiti judicial sources told the AFP news agency that the Gulf state had sentenced three Shiite men to death for plotting the assassination of Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Fahad al-Yousef, collaborating with Iran; and to be a member of Hezbollah. Iran’s embassy in Kuwait said earlier on Wednesday that it “rejects the Kuwaiti government’s claim that an Iranian citizen was involved in a plot to assassinate figures or in any other act that could harm the national security of Kuwait.” In response, Kuwait summoned the Iranian ambassador, Mohammad Toutounji, over the statement, which it said “constituted a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of the State of Kuwait and a violation of its sovereignty and the independence of its judiciary.” Abdulredha Haydar Dahqani was among those sentenced to death, judicial sources told AFP. Dahqani, an Iranian citizen, had already been sentenced to death in 2016 after being tried in absentia along with 25 Kuwaitis. He was convicted of spying for Iran and planning attacks. Another was Hussein Abdallah al-Maatouq, a religious dignitary and secretary general of the National Islamic Alliance, Kuwait’s most influential Shiite movement, the sources said.CBS/AFP
