KUWAIT: MP Saadoun Hammad yesterday called on authorities to ban the import, purchase and use of drones because of their high risk to national security and stability of the country, saying that drones are capable of obtaining confidential information that could harm the country's national interests.


Hammad also called for restricting the import and use of drones for the state only, adding that he is currently preparing a draft law calling to bar individuals and companies from importing or using drones. He said if the law is approved by the National Assembly, owners of drones should surrender them to authorities because the law will include penalties for violators.


Meanwhile, opposition MP Riyadh Al-Adasani said yesterday that grilling Interior Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah has become "urgently necessary" over alleged violations in the admission of police cadets. The lawmaker has repeatedly threatened to grill the minister for allegedly committing various violations in the ministry and set the beginning of the next term to file his grilling. Adasani said that the minister committed violations in the admission of the police cadets by exempting a number of them from some of the conditions. He vowed to prove these violations during the debate of the grilling that is expected to take place in November.


In a related development, MP Khaled Al-Otaibi yesterday asked the interior minister if the ministry had initiated any contact with Twitter to help implicate Kuwaiti activists and others. He asked the minister if the minister had inquired from Twitter during the past five years about a number of tweeters, with regards to a number of court cases filed against them.


If the answer is positive, Otaibi asked the minister about the mechanism of contacting Twitter's management and its response, in addition to the measures taken based on such contacts. The lawmaker also inquired about the number of cases filed by the ministry based on such contacts over the past five years.

By B Izzak