Saudi sues Kuwaiti men for 'defaming' dead Saudis

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Arab News:

Kuwaiti lawyer Mufrih Ghareeb Al-Mitairi has filed a lawsuit at the office of the prosecutor general in Kuwait against two of his compatriots, a businessman and a lawyer, for defaming the late Sheikh Abdul Aziz Bin Baz (the Saudi grand mufti for most of the 1990s) and Sheikh Muhammad bin Abdul Wahab (the 18th century Islamic scholar) linking their Islamic ideologies to terrorism, the local Arabic daily Al-Eqtisadiah reported Thursday.

Al-Mitairi said Abdullah Bin Baz, the son of the late sheikh, has retained him and asked him to file the lawsuit and to see that justice is done.

Speaking to the newspaper by telephone from Kuwait, Al-Mitairi said the lawsuit he filed Tuesday against Kuwaiti lawyer Khaled Al-Shatti and businessman Mahmoud Haidar was accepted and the two would appear before court. He said that Shatti leveled false allegations against Sheikh Bin Baz and Sheikh Abdul Wahab when talking to the Al-Adalah satellite channel on March 22. He said the electronic media owned by Haidar also carried Shatti’s statements.

"Shatti and Haidar not only verbally attacked the two Saudi Sheikhs but also accused their dawa (guidance) method of encouraging terrorism," Al-Mitairi said.

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This sounds like a weak case which could be jeopardized by the application of the Dead Man's Statute which bars getting into a dispute about what a dead person may have said. Both sides will have to rely on hear sat testimony unless they can find some written document in the hand writing of the alleged promoters of terrorism. The trial could wind up being an embarrassment to the prosecution if there are recording of the two urging terrorist attacks.

I do not think it is a smart lawsuit, but it maybe tried in a court that does not require strict adherence to the rule of law.