Two ‘brothers’ receive citizenship for cash

A Syrian man who goes by the name of ‘Saado’ became a Kuwaiti in exchange of KD 22,000, while M.A.F., a bedoon (stateless) man, became a Kuwaiti for KD 19,000. The strange thing is that they worked for the army and got the nationality’s advantages such as residence, marriage loan, etc. But what is more strange is that they were registered in state records as brothers, based on being the sons of one person who added them to his file in exchange of money, but none of them knew about the other until they were busted.

Sources said Saado was naturalized in 1986 while M.A.F. was naturalized in 1996. Saado’s father agreed with a Kuwaiti, M.H., to add his son to his nationality file for KD 22,000, and this is what was done following providing false information, so a Kuwaiti passport and a civil ID under the name H.M.A. was issued to Saado and with a 1971 birthdate.

Meanwhile, in the second case, investigations revealed that in 1996, the same Kuwaiti person agreed with M.M.F, a bedoon, and a relative of M.A.F, to add the latter to the nationality file in exchange of KD 19,000, and he did so after giving false information and he got a passport and a civil ID under the name K.M.A. stating he was born in 1989. The sources said investigations showed that Saado and M.A.F. still work for the army and gave false information to get the nationality. The issue was sent to the public prosecution for forgery in official documents charges.