[Picture from Al-Qabas newspaper]

On the 6th of July, Bedoon protesters showed up in the afternoon in Taimaa to protest for their rights. Bedoon Rights members document the following details of the protest and the arrests:

Al-Hathal’s Arrest

Kuwait was living tense time in the past two days when the head of Eniza’s tribe decided to come to Kuwait just to attend the protest with Bedoon. Jidaan Al-Hathal arrived in Kuwait’s airport with his Kuwaiti passport and was detained for over a day getting interrogated for his stand with Bedoon, which many of them are part of the tribe he heads. Hundreds were protesting in front of the state security police building calling for his release. Al-Hathal was expected to show up in the protest but could not stated to Al-Watan newspaper that he received phone calls from high personals in the Gulf asking him not to attend the protest!

Monitors: bombs and arrests

The protest started when protesters finished their afternoon prayers in Al-Najashi street. They left the mosque and marched with few Kuwaiti activists attending to show solidarity. “The Human Line” Kuwaiti human rights group attended the protest to report violations and according to their monitors Taher Al-Baghli and Maryam Shah, the police used sound bombs and chased protesters and made arrests. The arrests were 10 including Kuwaiti Lawyer Mohammed Al-Fadhli who was released shortly later. The rest are Bedoon and were transformed to the criminal investigations jail. Al-Fadhli has been voluntarily defending Bedoon detainees in courts.

Kuwaiti woman activist attacked

Dr. Fatma Al-Mattar has been a big supporter of the Bedoon cause. She attended rallies and lectures and constantly speaks of the Bedoon struggle. Al-Mattar talks in this video about the way she was beaten by a riot police man for trying to stop him from his continuous beating of a young Bedoon protester:

 

Police rejecting complaints

After the incident, Al-Mattar went to Taimaa police station to file complaints against the police man who have attacked her. The officer Ghuloom Habib did not give her or lawyer AlFadhli any identity details of the accused officers, refused to file complaints and told them to “go to the interior ministry.” This hasn’t happened before and shows how authorities are practicing a further level of violations against the Bedoon community.

Names of Detainees

The names of detainees arrested in Friday’s protest are:

1- Saad Khuwaitir

2- Abdullah Mayah Al-Otaibi (journalist)

3- Nawaf Al-Khaldi

4- Jafar Abdullah

5- Ahmad Abdullah Al-Enizi

6- Faisal Qased Al-Fadhli

7- Asaad Hammad Al-Shammari

8- Nasser Hussain Obaid

9- Ahmad Hlail Saad

10- Ali Marzooq Shamran

11- Ghazi Qased Al-Fadhli

12- Mohammed Jaser Mnady

There are no charges made yet against protesters. It is worth mentioning is that on the 26th of june, two Bedoon activists marched in Taimaa alone holding the Kuwaiti flag and chanting for their rights. The police arrested Abdullah Attallah Daham Al-Enizi and Yousif Muhsin Wadi Al-Harby but released them on the first of July.