‘Thieves’ return cash, out on bail
KUWAIT CITY, Jan 25: The Court of Appeals, chaired by Judge Nasser AlHaid, cancelled the decision taken by the Criminal Court which sentenced 12 persons to jail for a period ranging from five to 10 years for stealing KD 1.5 million from banks.
The accused include two Kuwaitis, two Saudis, one Palestinian, one Egyptian, one Bedoun and some employees at banks.
The Court of Appeals refrained from punishing the accused, allowed them to post bail of KD 5,000 each and obligated them to sign a pledge to exhibit good conduct for two years.
The decision came after the defense lawyers pointed out that the role of the accused was limited to mediation between the real culprit and borrowers, adding the latter returned the loans in order to show good intention.
Blogger jailed: The Criminal Court presided over by Judge Mohammad Al-Mutairi sentenced a Kuwaiti blogger Mes’ab Al-Failakawi to five-year imprisonment with hard labor in a case filed against him by the State Security Department for spreading fake news.
According to the case file, Al-Failakawi was accused of using his Twitter handle to spread fake news outside the country concerning Kuwait’s internal situation. His action was regarded as weakening the state control and detrimental to the national interests. He allegedly violated the rights of the Amir and his authority publicly and insulted the leadership on social media.
Two officials fined: The Court of Cassation upheld the verdict of the Court of Appeals and fined a Kuwaiti woman (who works as a financial attaché) and another Kuwaiti (who works as a health attaché) at the health office affiliated to the Kuwaiti embassy in Washington, 20 thousand dinars, and dismissed them from work for that the verdict called unintentional damage to public money, after changing the description of the charge for wasting public money and counterfeiting, reports Al-Rai daily.
The supervisory authorities in Kuwait had earlier suspected the involvement of the female attaché in irregularities and sent a financial audit team to the health office and the audit team’s observations included numerous financial and administrative violations, forging American hospital bills and fake medical procedures for Kuwaitis citizens receiving money for medical tests.
The suspects also forged the signatures of patients, received their money and gave part of it to the patients, which prompted the Ministry of Health to refer case to the Public Prosecution.