KUWAIT: The Minister of Interior Major General Mansour Al-Esawi stated in Lathouqly Square, near the Ministry of Interior headquarters, a number of plans and suggestions shall be implemented which are expected to force policemen to respect and protect the rights of citizens, such as the right of detainees to conduct telephone calls during the first hour of conviction.
He also tasked all policemen with wearing identification badges on their uniforms which would include the name and the military rank of security individuals and/or policemen, in addition to a policy whereby authorities would be required to present identification to citizens. The minister has charged the Watch and Inspection Sector at the Ministry of Interior to launch permanent and unannounced inspection raids at random police offices in order to follow up with the application of these laws, and to make certain that there are no violations committed against civilians. The Minister affirmed that tough consequences would be incurred by any officer in violation of these laws.
Through the application of these new policies, the minister aims to rebuild trust between police officers and civilians. To this end, the minister had summoned Lt. Col. Mahmoud Abdulnabi - a police officer in Mina Security Department - to ask him about his recent statements issued to satellite channels concerning certain actions that State Security Apparatus still performs, despite the fact that the department was supposedly dissolved. Abdulnabi affirmed that police departments during the reign of the former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak abducted the journalist Majdi Husein, killed the journalist Redha Hilal, contributed in the bombing of the Saints Church in cooperation with the State Security Department, and executed many other actions against people, in addition to telephone hacking.
He added that policemen had forged the election results of 1995, and he himself witnessed the forgery process. Following these statements the Minister asked the Lt. Colonel to submit evidence to prove these cases, in order to forward the evidence to the Public Prosecution, which in turn will lead to the opening of an investigation into these matters.