6 Convicted in Kuwait of Aiding Iraq : Justice: Trials begin for more than 600 suspected of collaborating with the occupation forces. Some claim they were forced to make false confessions.

KUWAIT CITY — A Kuwaiti military tribunal Sunday convicted six people of collaborating with the Iraqi occupation and gave a 15-year jail sentence to one Iraqi whose only known offense was wearing a Saddam Hussein T-shirt.

The five-judge panel took less than five hours to convict the six, acquit four others and hear preliminary evidence about 12 more accused collaborators.

The trials that began Sunday were the first for more than 600 people detained as suspected collaborators after Kuwait’s liberation from Iraqi control in February. The proceedings were monitored by U.S. and British diplomats and the Red Cross amid charges that foreigners, especially Palestinians, have become the scapegoats of embittered Kuwaitis.

Despite the long jail sentences handed out Sunday, one Kuwaiti spectator put his head in his hands and cursed when three Palestinians were declared innocent.

The martial-law trials featured few of the niceties of American jurisprudence.

No witnesses were called to testify for either the prosecution or the defense. Some of the accused said they had been beaten into making false confessions.

And the four defense attorneys said they were laying eyes on some of the 22 defendants for the first time, had not reviewed the charges against them and had no opportunity to present exonerating evidence or to cross-examine police informers.

“In my 10 years as a lawyer, I have never had to deal with or defend ghosts!” roared defense attorney Najib Ibrahim Wegayan, haranguing the court with ardent rhetoric. “They say they have witnesses. Then let’s call them and cross-examine them.”

However, several Kuwaitis in the audience said they thought the trials were fair and hoped punishment would be swift.

“There are hundreds (of accused collaborators),” said a 26-year-old former university student. “If they bring 10 witnesses for each one, it will take 10 years. . . .

“I wish they would shoot them all.”

Collaborators could face the death penalty, with execution by hanging, defense lawyers said.

The trial was held on the sixth floor of the modern, marble-tiled Palace of Justice. The scars of the Iraqi invasion are still visible on the first floor, which was burned, trashed, and looted of everything from computers to office furniture.

The martial-law panel--two U.S.-trained military officers and three civilian judges--presided in front of an ornate, 20-foot-tall mosaic while the defendants sat with heads bowed in a wooden cage.

Allowed to roam in the courtroom was one Iraqi woman accused of informing on a Kuwaiti resistance fighter who lived in her apartment complex.

“I’m not guilty,” she said. “I never even talked to the guys (Iraqis).” As television cameras zoomed toward her face, she retreated inside a long black veil for cover. Her case was among 12 that were continued for further hearing.

Charges against the other defendants included collaboration, possession of weapons or ammunition, giving money, food or shelter to the Iraqis, looting, car theft and working for pro-Iraqi “foreign organizations,” including Palestinian militias.

Adnan Abdul Hassan, an Iraqi national, was charged with collaboration and wearing a T-shirt bearing Hussein’s picture on the day that allied troops rolled in to liberate Kuwait.

Hassan told the court he got the T-shirt before the Aug. 2 invasion by Iraq and wore it only as a nightshirt until the evening he was arrested. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison and deportation.

“I don’t know what (else) is inside his file,” said Wegayan, who was appointed on the spot to defend him. “If it’s just for wearing a T-shirt, it’s too much.”

By law, Kuwaiti attorneys may not comment on sentences. They seemed unfazed by the proceedings, however, and said they thought the martial-law trials were being conducted by the same rules as civilian ones.

In an opening statement, the chief judge, Mohammed Jasem Najir, promised that the judges would be independent and fair.

“I was afraid that the high emotion of the Kuwaiti people would upset the court, but I think it has not,” Wegayan said.

In all, five Iraqis and one Jordanian were convicted and given sentences of 3 1/2 to 15 years. Two were convicted in absentia. One of the Iraqis, Sabah Hassim Shamkhi, said he had paid an Iraqi 8,000 dinars, or more than $24,000, to get his brother out of jail and confessed to collaboration only because he was beaten. He was sentenced to 13 years.

An Egyptian, Azzouz Mohammed Azzouz, was charged with collaboration after he agreed to let three Iraqi shoe merchants stay at his home when they said they could not find a hotel. Azzouz argued that he had frequently quarreled with the Syrian who informed on him, and he was acquitted.

Also found not guilty were a Palestinian father and his two sons, accused of sheltering and helping an Iraqi. They insisted that the man told them he was a Palestinian and that they ousted him after a single night when they learned his nationality.

The Ministry of Justice said defendants may appeal their convictions, first to a panel of judges who report to the crown prince and then to the ruling emir for a pardon.

The U.S. Embassy observer, Vice Consul Marty Martin, declined to comment on Sunday’s proceedings but said the embassy will issue statements as the trials continue.