Malaysia file may red-face Kuwaitis

KUWAIT CITY, Aug 7: In a dangerous turn that threatens the country, its reputation and its international standing, the file of “The Malaysian Sovereign Fund” took an escalating turn, after several Malaysians launched a campaign to collect signatures on the “Change” website to recover the funds they claim were looted by Kuwaiti officials and are still frozen in bank accounts inside Kuwait valued at USD 6.7 billion, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

As of Tuesday last week, about 26,000 individuals signed the campaign. The website published new data, including new numbers, and the names of 17 Kuwaiti personalities who are familiar with the fund’s case and were not questioned by the concerned authorities in the country.

The signatories to the campaign called on the various decision-makers including the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha), the Public Prosecution, and the US Department of Justice to act on this file and return the looted Malaysian money.

They said Nazaha and the Public Prosecution remained silent regarding the issue of corruption, which can be considered as the largest in the world.

The signed petition contained a table with the value and date of the money transfers claimed to be returned. The transfers were made to the accounts of the company Comoros Golf owned by Bashar Kiwan, on September 20, 2016, and their value was $ 70 million. A transfer was also made to Al-Sabah International General Trading Company on August 28, 2017, worth one billion dollars which were transferred in eight installments in one day. Also, a transfer of $5 billion was made to Montrian International in 2016 and in 2018.

While the campaign identified its demands from the Kuwaiti authorities, it threatened to push the people’s representatives in the Malaysian parliament to transfer the case to the International Court of Justice, in implementation of the United Nations Convention on Combating CrossBorder Organized Crime, signed by the Malaysian and Kuwaiti sides.

The petition included 12 demands from Kuwait, the most important of which are data of transfers received at the Chinese Bank branch, the parties that received these transfers and the names of officials and shareholders in these entities, as well as the names of all persons involved in the sovereign fund case, attached to the investigation reports conducted by the Kuwaiti authorities on this case, which it had kept it confidential.

The petition also demanded the minutes of the full meeting between the former Kuwaiti Prime Minister and “Jo Low” - the fugitive accused on April 19, 2016, as well as all the reports received from the Kuwaiti authorities regarding the purchase of land by a Malaysian company in Kuala Lumpur, and the list of blocked or frozen accounts, and a written permission to meet Colonel Faisal Al-Sabah and Colonel Nasir Al-Tayyar, the whistleblowers in this case.

The new fatalities included six children and four women as hospitals across the Palestinian enclave come under immense pressure, according to Palestinian health ministry spokesman Ashraf Al-Qodra.

Israeli air strikes have pounded the Gaza Strip for three days, leaving scores of Palestinians either dead or injured, while buildings and other infrastructure were reduced to rubble, witnesses told KUNA.

Israel said Sunday it killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander in a crowded Gaza refugee camp, the second such targeted attack since launching its highstakes military offensive against the militant group just before the weekend.

The Iran-backed militant group has fired hundreds of rockets at Israel in response, raising the risk of the crossborder fighting turning into a full-fledged war.

Gaza’s ruling Hamas group, which fought an 11-day war with Israel in May 2021, appeared to stay on the sidelines for now, possibly because it fears Israeli reprisals and undoing economic understandings with Israel, including Israeli work permits for thousands of Gaza residents, that bolster its control.

The Islamic Jihad commander, Khaled Mansour, was killed in an airstrike on an apartment building in the Rafah refugee camp in southern Gaza late Saturday.

Offensive

Two other militants and five civilians also were killed in the attack, bringing the Palestinian Death toll to 36 since the start of the Israeli offensive Friday. Among the dead were six children and four women. The Palestinian Health Ministry said more than 310 people were wounded since Friday.

Israel says some of the Deaths were caused by errant rocket fire, including one incident in the Jebaliya refugee camp in northern Gaza in which six Palestinians were killed Saturday. On Sunday, a projectile hit a home in the same area of Jebaliya, killing two men. Palestinians held Israel responsible, while Israel said it was investigating whether the area was hit by an errant rocket.

Mansour, the Islamic Jihad commander for southern Gaza, was in the apartment of a member of the group when the missile struck, flattening the three-story building and badly damaging nearby houses.

“Suddenly, without warning, the house next to us was bombed and everything became black and dusty with smoke in the blink of an eye,” said Wissam Jouda, who lives next to the targeted building.

Ahmed al-Qaissi, another neighbor, said his wife and son were among the wounded, suffering shrapnel injuries. To make way for rescue workers, al-Qaissi agreed to have part of his house demolished.

As a funeral for Mansour began in the Gaza Strip on Sunday afternoon, the Israeli military said it was striking suspected “Islamic Jihad rocket launch posts.” Smoke could be seen from the strikes as thumps from their explosions rattled Gaza. Israeli airstrikes and rocket fire followed for hours as sirens wailed in central Israel. As the sunset call to prayer sounded Sunday night in Gaza, sirens wailed as far north as Tel Aviv.

Damaged

Israel’s Defense Ministry said mortars fired from Gaza struck the Erez border crossing into Israel, used by thousands of Gazans a day. The mortars damaged the roof and shrapnel hit the hall’s entrance, the ministry said. The crossing has been closed amid the fighting.

The Rafah strike was the deadliest so far in the current round of fighting, which was initiated by Israel on Friday with the targeted killing of Islamic Jihad’s commander for northern Gaza.

Israel has said it took action against the militant group because of concrete threats of an imminent attack, but has not provided details. Caretaker Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who is an experienced diplomat but untested in overseeing a war, unleashed the offensive less than three months before a general election in which he is campaigning to keep the job.

Al-Quds Brigades (AQB), the military wing of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad (PIJ), reported on Sunday the death of the commander of the southern region and a member of the Military Council, Khaled Mansour by the Israeli forces.

In a press release, AQB stated that Mansour was killed in a bombing in the city of Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip.

Gaza’s Civil Defense crews were able to retrieve the body of the martyr and a number of his companions, among them one child and two women. The number of martyrs reached 29, with six children, four women and 253 injured.

The Arab Parliament condemned on Sunday the incursion by Jewish settlers into Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, violating its sanctity to mark the Tisha B’Av (Ninth of Av) anniversary of the destruction of the so-called Temple Mount.