Kuwait Upholds Decision to Drop Case Against Hacker Accused of Targeting Pentagon

Kuwait’s highest court has upheld a previous court ruling to drop a lawsuit against a young Kuwaiti man accused of hacking numerous US websites, including the Pentagon.

The Court of Cassation confirmed the verdict, dropping the case against the 28-year-old, who has been described by Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas as the "most dangerous Kuwaiti hacker."

He was accused of hacking 200 secret US government sites, including the Department of Defence, displaying classified information, and seizing money.

The court ruled the case dropped, stating it is unlawful to try the defendant more than 10 years after the incident. The defendant faced criminal charges for hacking the Pentagon website, accessing sensitive weaponry locations, and releasing the information in 2011.

In October last year, a Kuwaiti criminal court dropped the case against the man, citing that he could not be tried for actions committed from 2010 to 2012.

The court also dropped charges of jeopardising Kuwait’s international relations due to his hacking of the Pentagon website.

Prosecutors had earlier charged the then-teenager with hacking more than 200 websites, some containing classified information, as well as fraud for obtaining money through deceit by promoting his own website to solicit fees from victims.

Last September, Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai reported that a hacker had targeted the Kuwaiti Finance Ministry and displayed data obtained from a website linked to the ministry.

According to the report, the hacker gave the ministry seven days to pay a ransom of 15 bitcoins (around £310,000) to retrieve the allegedly exclusive data or he would sell it to others.

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