Recent reports that Jassim Al-Kharafi – the former parliamentary speaker and a member of one of Kuwait’s most powerful merchant families – had been charged with “attempting to topple the regime, laundering money and contact with an enemy state” should have sent shockwaves throughout Kuwait. But instead, the report – carried by a Kuwaiti daily newspaper in early October – prompted only a quiet denial from Kharafi’s lawyer that his client had been charged, and no official word from the government. The strange little episode was the latest in a string of quickly hushed-up rumours linked to an alleged coup plot, reports of which – said to include an audio and video recording – first surfaced in April.