KUWAIT (Dispatches) -- Kuwait’s State Security Court sentenced three men to death on Monday after convicting them of spying for Iran and Hezbollah and plotting to assassinate senior officials, including the interior minister, court records showed.
The court also handed five-year prison terms to eight other defendants. The verdicts are subject to appeal.
The Public Prosecution charged the men with espionage, planning hostile acts against Kuwait, plotting to assassinate First Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Fahad Al Yousef Al Sabah, joining an outlawed organization and undermining national interests. Some were accused of attempting to use explosives in the alleged plot.
One of those sentenced to death was identified as Hussein Abdullah al-Matouq, secretary-general of the National Islamic Alliance, according to judicial sources cited by AFP. Another had been previously convicted on terrorism charges in 2016, later pardoned, and rearrested in April.
The ruling comes amid a broader security crackdown in Kuwait that human rights groups say has targeted dissent and free expression far beyond any genuine security threat.
Amnesty International warned in a report this year that Persian Gulf states, including Kuwait, had arrested more than 1,000 people in a sweeping crackdown on expression linked to regional wars. 
Kuwaiti authorities stripped more than 1,200 people of their nationality via an emiri decree in April without providing reasons, the rights group said.
Kuwait’s emir issued a new counter-terrorism law in March 2026 that Amnesty said contains a vague and overly broad definition of “terrorist act,” expands the use of the death penalty, and could encompass peaceful protest and dissent. 
The law also allows restrictions on individuals without criminal conviction and permits closed hearings with limited appeal avenues.
The State Security Court, a specialized body handling terrorism and state security cases, has issued verdicts against dozens of social media users and journalists over posts related to the war on Iran. 
Kuwaiti-American journalist Ahmed Shihab-Eldin was detained for 52 days over sharing footage of a U.S. fighter jet crash that was already publicly circulating, before being acquitted on one charge and given a suspended sentence on others.
The Committee to Protect Journalists and other rights bodies have described the detention as emblematic of a widening campaign against press freedom in the Persian Gulf under the pretext of national security.