Fourteen Kuwaiti citizens who were convicted of forming a cell with ties to Tehran have fled by sea to Iran, a Kuwaiti newspaper, Al-Seyassah daily, reported Monday.

Citing high-ranking security sources, the newspaper said that 14 men who reportedly belong to the Shia community fled to Iran on speedboats hours after Kuwait's supreme court sentenced them to lengthy jail terms for plotting attacks in the state.

Kuwait's interior ministry was not immediately available for comment.

The supreme court last month overturned an acquittal by the appeals court and sentenced 21 defendants to jail, including one for life, for forming a cell with ties to both Iran and Lebanon's Hezbollah movement as well as for planning attacks in Kuwait.

The defendants who fled were not in custody prior to last month's sentencing because they were freed after their acquittal by the appeals court last year.