Kuwait on the roll with arrests ahead of New Year
Ahead of the New Year’s celebration, Kuwait’s interior ministry arrested dozens of men and women for allegedly flouting morals and engaging in vicious activities.
Interior ministry’s campaign was launched Thursday and Friday to preemptively combat any practice it finds contrary to the Muslim’s country’s values.
Kuwait’s anti-drugs and anti-vice police raided several flats and camps in different areas in the country.
In the Jabriya district alone, police arrested 41 men, and 23 men, with their nationalities kept anonymous, and in Salmiya, a major bustling area, 32 men and 15 women were arrested, and in Salibiya 10 men and seven women.
The arrests came as a move to preemptively intensify raids on "suspicious" areas and accommodations ahead of the New Year.
A week prior the New Year eve celebration, a Kuwaiti national was arrested after he smuggled in dozens of wine bottles that he intended to sell to people planning to celebrate the occasion. The man said that he got the bottles from a Gulf country.
The importation, production and sale of alcohol is prohibited in Kuwait including sale of alcohol in hotels, unlike UAE and Qatar where the sale of alcohol is permitted there.
On November 2010, Kuwait witnessed the biggest liquor bust in its history where 37 thousand bottles of whiskey with a value of over $7 million were stopped from being smuggled into the country.
In the UAE and Qatar, foreigners and expatriates can enjoy a glamorous night life and the freedom to drink alcohol, however the UAE has documented cases of jailed, banned or deported people for showing public affection or not dressing decently as per the country’s law.
During the heydays of the Iraqi southern province of Basra in the 1970s, Kuwaitis used to cross the border to consume alcohol.
In August 2009, a Basra provincial council passed a decree banning the sale of alcohol in the southern city, but local authorities dropped the ban earlier in December after protests from non-Muslim minorities and NGOs.