Syrian brothers caught in 20-year citizenship forgery in Kuwait
Siblings are accused of manipulating acquired nationality to get perks offered to Kuwaitis
Cairo: Kuwaiti authorities have caught two expatriate brothers for having obtained Kuwaiti citizenship through forgery 20 years ago, according to a Kuwaiti newspaper.
An investigative judge has ordered the two Syrian men be kept in custody for further interrogation on charges of forging citizenship and working at government agencies where they were paid and obtained perks offered to Kuwaiti citizens, Al Qabas reported.
The two were arrested after police investigations showed they unlawfully claimed they were sons of a Kuwaiti man, the paper quoted what it described as a well-informed source.
"It was found out that they obtained Kuwaiti nationality 20 years ago in return for paying KD30,000. Their real father is a Syrian living outside Kuwait," the source said.
It was not immediately clear if accomplices were arrested in the case.
Kuwait, a country of around 4.9 million people mostly foreigners, is pressing ahead with a clampdown on citizenship fraud.
Kuwaiti authorities have withdrawn citizenship from hundreds of people since early March due to fraud or holding another nationality.
The Kuwaiti Interior Ministry has set up a hotline to receive reports about holders of citizenship obtained through forgery.
In May, a Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced an expatriate doctor to five years in prison on charges of citizenship fraud.
The woman doctor, an Arab national, was found guilty of impersonating a Kuwaiti citizen after stealing the passport of a Kuwaiti man and using the document for travel after exquisitely altering her facial features to resemble those of the citizen.
She was arrested after arriving in Kuwait from her home country with the stolen passport. She had raised doubts about the passport personnel with her accent, according to the Kuwaiti newspaper Al Rai.