Kuwait announced the charges almost a year ago, but the trial was held behind closed doors so next to nothing is known about the case.
Seven were known to be charged in the spy case, six men and an 18-year-old Iranian woman.
They were said to have gathered information about the Kuwaiti military and US Army activities in Kuwait for Iran’s Pasdaran. The United States has a major base in Kuwait; it is used primarily as a staging base for personnel assigned to Iraq.
All seven of the accused were reported to have pleaded not guilty.
News reports on the trial were a jumble. The 18-year-old Iranian woman was sometimes described as the daughter of one of the six accused men and sometimes as the wife.
Some reports said two of those sentenced to death were Iranians, but most left their nationalities up in the air.
One report saying two of those sentenced to die were Iranians also said that all three of the men condemned to hang were in the Kuwaiti military—without explaining how Iranians could be serving in the Kuwaiti military.
The Kuwaiti Judiciary has made no formal announcement of the trial’s outcome, leading to the conflicting accounts appearing in news outlets.
The Kuwaiti government’s announcement of the arrests last year did not say the seven were accused of working for Iran. But the Kuwaiti media quickly reported that and the government never said otherwise.
But two days after the verdict was reported in the media, the daily Al-Qabas quoted Foreign Minister Shaikh Moham-mad As-Sabah as saying the trial “proved the cell’s direct links to Iran and specifically to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard.”
He said Kuwait was recalling its ambassador from Tehran and would summon Iran’s charge d’affaires in Kuwait to hear of Kuwait’s displeasure.
He also said Kuwait would expel three Iranian diplomats whom the court had pinpointed as being involved in running the spy network.
President Ahmadi-nejad denied that Iran had any spies in Kuwait. “It is clear that this [charge] has no meaning,” he told reporters Monday. “What is this spying in Kuwait all about? What does Kuwait have that we would want to spy on?” he asked, managing to insult Kuwait while denying the espionage allegation.
Around the Persian Gulf, many Arabic dailies commented on the case as demonstrating Iran’s hostility for its small Arab neighbors. The presence of spies gathering information does not, however, demonstrate hostility, just information gathering. The Kuwaiti media pointedly has not linked the spy ring to opposition groups in Kuwait or to any efforts to promote disorder in the country.