Kuwaiti officer gets 13 years in prison for selling National Guard weapons

Dubai: A senior military officer in Kuwait has been sentenced to 13 years in prison after being found guilty of selling National Guard weapons and ammunition, local media reported.

The Court of Cassation issued the verdict also sentencing suspect’s accomplice to 10 years, and imposing fines on both. According to Al Majlis newspaper, the case involved 15 more people, some of whom were sentenced to three years while others, including a Kuwaiti woman, were fined KD5,000.

Earlier this year, Kuwait referred two senior army officers to the public prosecutor over suspected corruption related to a deal to buy Eurofighter Typhoon jets. Kuwait received its first two Eurofighter Typhoons in December 2021 as part of an order for a total of 28 aircraft that will be delivered to the Kuwait Air Force.

“Investigations show that the defendants committed several violations that caused huge losses to state exchequer by paying inflation bills to the manufacturer that exceeded the total value agreed upon in the main contract ... without prior permission from the relevant authorities,” the Kuwait Anti-Corruption Authority (Nazaha) said in a statement at that time.