Kuwait's Cassation Court handed a sentence of life...

Kuwait's Cassation Court handed a sentence of life in prison to Alaa Hussein, a former Kuwaiti military reservist, found guilty of treason for heading a puppet government under Iraq's occupation. After initial news saying that the Court had upheld Alaa Hussein's death sentence, a written copy of the verdict said that his death sentence had been reduced to life after more than a year of legal cases and appeals. Hussein, 42, had said in a previous hearing that a softer sentence would be an "insult", demanding freedom or death if found guilty again. He was given a death sentence in May 2000 after returning home from self-exile in Norway, believing that he would be pardoned. Hussein, his sons and other members of his family had urged Kuwait's ruler Emir Sheikh Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah to pardon the former reserve officer, who had all along insisted on his innocence, saying that Iraq had forced him to lead a puppet regime after the 1990 invasion.