Trials of Suspected Collaborators Resume in Kuwait Court : Justice: Of 25 who appear on charges of cooperating with Iraqi occupation forces, 23 get continuances so their lawyers can prepare a defense.

More than a dozen Palestinians charged with cooperating with the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait went on trial Saturday as the emirate continued its prosecution of alleged wartime collaborators.

A Turkish house painter charged with spying and theft and accused of wearing an Iraqi uniform in Kuwait city was acquitted by a five-judge martial-law tribunal. A Palestinian man caught with one bullet was sentenced to six months’ probation.

In all, 41 defendants--only one of them a Kuwaiti citizen--were charged with offenses ranging from looting and car theft to informing on the Kuwaiti resistance, joining the Iraqi-sponsored “People’s Army” and working for the Palestine Liberation Organization, whose chairman, Yasser Arafat, backed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Twenty-five defendants appeared in court, and the cases against 23 were postponed to give defense lawyers more time to prepare.

A week ago, the tribunal handed a 15-year prison sentence to an Iraqi man whose only stated crime was wearing a Saddam Hussein T-shirt. Government officials have since said the man was a longtime Iraqi spy but have not made public the evidence against him.

The T-shirt episode prompted an international outcry--including a mild rebuke from President Bush--and the court has since delayed the trials of those accused of serious crimes.

Western diplomats and human rights groups continue to monitor the trials closely. At several points during Saturday’s proceedings, the presiding judge, Mohammed Jasem ibn Naji, made pointed quips about the international scrutiny.

When a court-appointed lawyer said he was too busy to take on another case, the judge replied, “You have to take on this case so you can show how justice works in Kuwait.”

Several defendants, Jordanian passport holders believed to be of Palestinian origin, said they had been beaten or tortured into making false confessions to Kuwaiti police.

Mahmoud Ali Shafai, who allegedly repaired cars for the Iraqis, smuggled weapons to Iraqi sympathizers and forced his friends to join the People’s Army, said he was beaten on the body and the soles of his feet and tortured with electric shocks, according to his lawyer, Emad Saif.

The judge asked Shafai who was responsible, and the defendant pointed to courtroom guards in Kuwaiti military uniforms.

“Ask him their nationality,” Saif told the judge. “We don’t know who did it. It could have been Americans, it could have been French.”

“The Americans wouldn’t do something like that,” retorted the judge.

All of the defendants pleaded innocent, but unlike the first trial, when the accused were permitted to say little in their own defense, on Saturday Judge Ibn Naji patiently questioned them about details of the evidence against them.

Several admitted joining PLO militias, which manned checkpoints across Kuwait city and were believed responsible for widespread looting and rape. Two former Kuwaiti military officers said they had joined the People’s Army under duress and had been sent to Iraq for training.

Mortatha Natsha, charged with stealing cars, food and water, and informing to the Iraqis, said he had received some goods from relatives in Lebanon and took them to a man named Abu Hussein at the PLO’s unofficial embassy in Kuwait city.

“He offered me a job, but I said no, I can’t, I have a family,” Natsha said.

Natsha also claimed to have been abused during interrogation by the Kuwaitis.

“I didn’t confess to anything, but they hit me on my head,” he said. “Then they held a glass up to my head (to catch the blood) and then they made me drink it.”

He leaned over the bench to show the judge scars on his head and hands. The judge ordered an investigation and said coerced confessions would not be admissible in court.

Another man, Abid Azouz, was charged with weapons offenses and joining the PLO. He maintained that he was in fact a double agent, working for the Kuwaiti resistance by spying on Palestinians who were in turn working for Abu Iyad, generally regarded as the No. 2 figure in the PLO.

“Did you join the PLO to aid the resistance?” asked the judge.

“Yes,” said Azouz, adding that his story could be confirmed by a Kuwaiti resistance leader who is expected to be called as a witness.

After Kuwait’s liberation, the PLO residence was reportedly sacked.

The collaboration trials are scheduled to continue for at least two months, with 175 cases involving several hundred defendants still to be heard.

Among the trials scheduled for this week are that of a Jordanian passport holder accused of murder and four Iraqis accused of raping and killing four Kuwaiti women. Three Kuwaiti men charged in a homosexual rape are expected to be tried separately and possibly in closed session, Justice Ministry officials said.