29OCT

Kuwait court sentences three to death

2 min read

17:49UTC

A Kuwaiti court sentenced three men to death, one of them Iranian, over an alleged plot against the interior minister. Kuwait then summoned Iran's ambassador over his embassy's denial.

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Key takeaway

Kuwait summoned Iran's ambassador after his embassy disputed a death sentence on an Iranian.

In Kuwait, the State Security Circuit of the Criminal Court sentenced three men to death on Monday 26 October over an alleged plot against Interior Minister Fahad Al-Yousef, and gave eight other defendants five years each, Kuwaiti media reported⁠¹. One of the three is an Iranian national, Asharq Al-Awsat reported⁠². The sentences remain subject to appeal⁠³.

Iran's embassy said its citizen was not involved and had been outside Kuwait for ten years. Kuwait's foreign ministry then summoned Iran's ambassador, Mohammad Toutounji, on Wednesday 28 October by most accounts, and handed him a protest note calling the embassy's statement "blatant interference". Deputy Foreign Minister Hamad Al-Mashaan cited international law and the UN Charter⁠⁴.

The protest answers the embassy's statement, not the verdict, and so moves the case from the courtroom into relations between the two governments. Kuwait already has a stake in the war at sea: the Kuwait-flagged product tanker Al Dasma was hit in the strait of Hormuz on 20 or 21 October.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Kuwait is a small, oil-rich Gulf state across the water from Iran. A Kuwaiti court has sentenced three men to death over an alleged plan to harm the country's interior minister, who runs the police and internal security. One of the three is from Iran. The men can still appeal. Iran's embassy said its citizen had nothing to do with it and had not lived in Kuwait for ten years. Kuwait was angered that a foreign embassy commented on its courts, called in Iran's ambassador and handed him a formal protest.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Kuwait has kept a working relationship with Iran longer than most Gulf states, through trade and a large Shia minority. That makes any Iranian link to a plot against its interior minister a domestic security issue as well as a foreign one.

The summons followed the embassy's statement, not the verdict. Kuwait treats public comment by a foreign mission on its courts as the line, which leaves the appeal process as the space where the case can still move without breaking ties.

What could happen next?

Risk
A Kuwaiti diplomatic downgrade would cost Iran one of its few open Gulf embassies.
Consequence
The appeal will test the evidence against a defendant Iran says left Kuwait a decade ago.

Source Landscape

This story draws on mixed-leaning sources from United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia

Saudi Arabia×2

United Arab Emirates

LeftRight

Primary parallel: In 2015 Kuwaiti police found a large arms cache on a farm in Abdali near the Iraqi border, and courts convicted members of the cell. When Kuwait's highest court upheld the verdicts in 2017, Kuwait ordered Iran to cut its embassy staff and shut its military, cultural and trade offices, turning a court case into a diplomatic downgrade.

Counter-parallel: After the 1983 bombings in Kuwait City, Kuwaiti courts convicted 17 men, and the state refused to free them despite hijackings that demanded their release. The case did not end through diplomacy at all; the prisoners escaped when Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990.

Consensus view: Kuwait's foreign ministry, through Deputy Foreign Minister Hamad Al-Mashaan, treats the Iranian embassy's statement as "blatant interference" in a court case, citing international law and the UN Charter. On that view the dispute is about an embassy commenting on a live judicial process, not about the verdict itself.

Counter-view: Iran's embassy rests its objection on a factual point: that its citizen had been outside Kuwait for ten years. If accurate, that raises the question of how he took part in the alleged plot, a question Kuwait's appeal courts, not its foreign ministry, will have to answer.

Key tension: Whether Kuwait keeps the matter in its courts, where the appeal can test the evidence, or moves it into diplomacy, where it would cost Iran one of its few working relationships in The Gulf.

Sources:The National·Asharq Al-Awsat·Asharq Al-Awsat

Mentions:Kuwait Criminal Court →Kuwaiti Ministry of Foreign Affairs →Fahad Al-Yousef →Hamad Al-Mashaan →Iran →Kuwait →UN Charter →Asharq Al-Awsat →Al Dasma →Tehran →Iraq →Strait of Hormuz →Shia →Kuwait City →

First Reported In

Update #183 · Iran threatens legal action on Sinokor ships

The National· 29 Oct 2026

Read original →

Different Perspectives

United States (Joint Maritime Information Center)

The JMIC, the US-led naval reporting cell, rated the Hormuz threat "severe" in its 25 October advisory, as reported by gCaptain, and warned of possible renewed mining. Eight days earlier it found no substantiation for the Guards' mine claims, while US-facilitated transits ran at about 34 a day.

United Kingdom (CPS and Counter Terrorism Policing)

The CPS charged two men under the National Security Act 2023 over the RAF Fairford incident, and Counter Terrorism Policing said it believes the foreign intelligence service involved is Iran's, LBC reported. The case now runs through the courts; both men are charged, not convicted.

Aden and Yemen's recognised government

The Houthis told people to leave Aden airport, in the government-held south, before a missile fell there on 28 October, AFP reported, and police reported a second attack that afternoon. The fight between Riyadh and the Houthis is landing on the south's main civilian airport.

Qatar (mediators)

Qatar-led mediators put new terms to Iran this week, which an Iranian official called "ideas, not a proposal". Riyadh framed the Tehran meeting as support for Qatari and Pakistani mediation, keeping Doha at the centre of the indirect channel.

Korea Shipowners' Association

The association said the ships Iran listed were sub-chartered to an overseas oil company, not owned by Sinokor, carried no South Korean crew, and that Sinokor was unaware of the warning. South Korea's shipowners are contesting whose vessels the notice covers before it takes effect.

Kuwait (foreign ministry)

Kuwait summoned Iran's ambassador, Mohammad Toutounji, and handed him a protest note over the embassy's denial that its citizen took part in the alleged plot against Interior Minister Fahad Al-Yousef. Kuwait is answering through its courts and a diplomatic protest, citing international law and the UN Charter.

Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.