Q8NRI.com

Kuwait – Al Watan has obtained new and intriguing information about confessed hoax bomb caller Orlando Turner through his Kuwaiti lawyer Abdulaziz AlـNabwan, who told the paper that his client visited him five months ago seeking AlـNabwan’’s assistance in his divorce and showing signs of depression, even threatening suicide. Related:-Kuwaitis condemn Orlando Turner’s actions

Al-Nabwan told Al Watan that Turner had originally come to Kuwait from Qatar, where he had met a Filipino woman and had fallen in love, however the woman was taking up a job offer in Kuwait and Turner chose to follow her.

The lawyer quoted Turner as saying that he completed his end of service agreements in Qatar and accompanied the woman to Kuwait where he married her.
Turner, according to the attorney, landed a job with a contractor for the US Army, but was later dismissed, as Turner had said in his exclusive interview with Al Watan Daily, hence becoming unemployed.

AlـNabwan explained that herein the problems developed between the couple, the wife becoming the sole earner for their expenses and newborn. Here, AlـNabwan says Turner’’s wife forced him out of the house and prevented him from returning home. He added that the wife then filed for divorce and a custody lawsuit against Turner, wherein Turner appeared at AlـNabwan’’s office in Salmiya seeking to assign AlـNabwan to his defense.

Narrating Turner’’s condition that day, AlـNabwan said his client was “obviously distraught” and told him that he would commit suicide “If I couldn’t do something for him.” He said that Turner told him that he could jump from AlـNabwan’’s office window, which is on the 12th floor.AlـNabwan said that he cooled down his client, and then Turner began frequently visiting his office, sometimes for hours at a time.

“Many a time we would be keen to have him sit down in fear that he might carry out his threat to commit suicide by jumping out the window,” the lawyer told Al Watan.

Other attorneys have commented to Al Watan on the issue from a legal perspective, noting that the Ministry of Interior can lodge a legal case with the judiciary against the American citizen against the backdrop of false bomb threats that he had made and the ensuing confessions, both on YouTube and to Al Watan Daily, that his actions were aimed at pressurizing Kuwaiti authorities in relation to his legal battle with his wife over the custody of their daughter.

The lawyers argue that Turner should be tried in Kuwait in absentia while the sentence be served out in the United States. They went on to say that Kuwait can equally liaise with Interpol to arrest the suspect and hand him over to Kuwait once he has been arrested in a country that has signed extradition agreement with Kuwait.

Legal pundits contend that Kuwait’’s penal code makes reference to the possibility of penalizing anyone involved in crimes that may undermine or upset Kuwait’’s national security.They said that the confessions can be taken as a palpable evidence to indict him.

Lawyer Najeeb AlـWaqyan said that the crime committed by the perpetrator comes under Article 145 of the Penal Code and stipulates that any action that could upset authorities or individuals is punishable with up to a 3 year jail sentence and a fine of 1,000 Kuwaiti dinars.

Another lawyer, Mubarak Mujzei, said that State Security must lodge a memo about the actions of the suspect that undermine national security, adding that the crime in question constitutes a national security crime. He explained that public prosecutors must send a letter to the Foreign Ministry, which in turn should contact US authorities to extradite the suspect.

By Abdullah Al-Najjar & Ibtisam Sayeed – Al Watan