Following a deadly mosque bombing, the kingdom of Kuwait has passed a law ordering mandatory DNA testing of all its subjects and foreign residents. Violators face prison terms.
An estimated 1.3 million
citizens and 2.9 million foreigners have to submit their DNA to
the Interior Ministry, which was tasked with compiling a
comprehensive database of people in the country. The Arab country
is the first in the world to gather gene samples of the entire
population, as opposed to merely storing the DNA of convicted
criminals, which law enforcement in many countries do.
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Special funding of some $400 million was allocated for the
creation of the database. Those who fail to submit samples face a
prison term of one year and a fine of up to $33,000. Those who
falsify their samples can be jailed for up to seven years under
the new law.
The Kuwaiti legislature passed the draconian law in response to
the bombing of a mosque in Kuwait City during Friday prayers on
June 26, which killed 26 people and wounded 227 others. The
Islamic State terrorist group claimed responsibility for the
attack.
The suicide bomber was reportedly identified as a Saudi-born
national, who arrived in Kuwait via Bahrain just hours before the
attack.
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Kuwait’s decision is bound to spark criticism from human rights
advocates. The creation of such a database would be illegal in
the European Union, where the Strasbourg court of human rights
ruled in 2008 that collecting DNA samples of non-criminals
breaches their privacy rights.
The court’s ruling forced the UK to amend its biometric retention
rules, which previously allowed storage of DNA samples and
fingerprints taken during the arrest of individuals if they were
not subsequently charged with a crime, or they were acquitted.
The largest national DNA database is maintained by the US and
includes profiles of convicted criminals, some arrestees,
forensic samples, missing persons and their relatives and
unidentified remains of deceased people, among others.
#Kuwait:
Former MP Musallam al-Barrak has been arrested for critical
speech https://t.co/uh6cVMpmPa pic.twitter.com/TRTndpICP9
— Amnesty Kuwait (@AmnestyKuwait) June
16, 2015
Kuwait has other unconventional and draconian practices in
enforcing its laws. For example, the kingdom may arbitrarily
revoke the citizenship of someone deemed unwanted in the country,
and has also launched a large-scale crackdown on those who
criticize the authorities. Just two weeks ago, a high-profile
member of the opposition, a former MP, was given a two-year
sentence for a speech he made in 2012.