Kuwait orders arrests over attack on TV channel

Kuwait has ordered the arrest of its ambassador in Jordan and several others including a top police officer for the armed attack of a privately-owned TV station.

The emirate's public prosecutor issued the order to arrest Sheikh Faisal Al-Hmoud-Al Malik Al-Sabah, who was accused of instigating the mob who rampaged the office of Scope TV and destroyed expensive equipment for the alleged slur on the ruling family in a satire the channel aired, reported Kuwait Times.

However Sheikh Faisal's son Sheikh Malik was quick to deny that any arrest warrant was issued against his father. He dismissed the news as "rumours".

Sheikh Faisal denied the allegations and said he just went to scene of the attack to calm down the mob and stop them from violent acts.

He criticized the channel and its owners for offending him and his family. He also threatened to kill himself if he had to go to the public prosecutor's office to face the investigators.

Based on a complaint filed by Scope TV's director Talal Al-Saeed, the public prosecution has meanwhile launched an investigation into the attack on the channel's offices and destruction of some equipment by an armed mob.

Employees of the channel insisted that the mob of at least 100 people stormed their office carrying guns and knives on Sunday. They went on a rampage and broke cameras, computers and other studio equipment forcing the channel off the air.

Fajr Al-Saeed, one of the station's writers, as saying the mob was looking for her and the station's director for writing the satire. She was questioned in the past by authorities for angering supporters of the ruling family and the government.

She told Al Jazeera TV that a senior official of the Interior Ministry, also a member of the ruling Al Sabah family, was behind the attack.