الرئيسية
Kuwaiti demonstrators break open a gate as they storm
the Kuwaiti National Assembly in on November 16, 2011. Some 20 Kuwaiti
opposition activists detained for storming parliament went on hunger
strike on Friday to protest against "illegal and oppressive detention,"
and maltreatment.(AFP/File/Yasser al-Zayyat)
By AFP
KUWAIT CITY (AFP) - Some 20 Kuwaiti opposition activists
detained for storming parliament went on hunger strike on Friday to
protest against "illegal and oppressive detention," and maltreatment.
The
announcement came in a statement posted on Twitter by the activists'
supporters immediately after the public prosecutor extended the
detention of 31 activists until Saturday for further investigation.
The
public prosecutor decided to "detain the 31 activists until late
Saturday to resume interrogations," Al-Humaidi al-Subaie, coordinator of
the opposition defence team, said.
Subaie said on Thursday that
the activists were being questioned on charges of damaging public
property, storming parliament, illegal procession, and assaulting police
and others, for which they "face a jail term of between six months and
life."
The Twitter statement claimed that the activists were
being improperly detained as they were kept in cells normally used for
criminals, prevented from contacting their relatives and were charged
collectively.
Hundreds of supporters spent the night outside the
palace of justice in Kuwait City in temperatures of eight degrees
Celsius (46 Fahrenheit), cold for the Gulf emirate.
They planned to gather again late Friday in a show of solidarity with the detainees.
The detained activists include a former MP, academics, doctors and writers.
Ahmad
al-Thayedi, the first university professor to be detained in the case,
told AFP minutes before handing himself in on Thursday that the "whole
issue has been politicised."
Hundreds of opposition activists
stormed the seaside parliament building on November 16 after clashes
with riot police that followed a large protest demanding the resignation
of the prime minister and the dissolution of parliament.
Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, on Sunday called the incident a "black day" for Kuwait.
The
oil-rich emirate has seen mounting tension between the government,
which is dominated by members of the ruling Al-Sabah family, and the
opposition.
The opposition bloc of 20 of the 50 members of
parliament called on Thursday for Interior Minister Sheikh Ahmad
al-Humoud al-Sabah to resign over police beating of activists.
The
opposition has also accused Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Mohammad
al-Ahmad al-Sabah, a senior member of the ruling family, of transferring
public funds into his overseas bank accounts. The government has denied
the charge.