Kuwait: Ex-police officer gets 15 years in jail for attempted robbery

Cairo: A Kuwaiti court has sentenced a former police officer to 15 years in prison with hard labour for an attempted robbery of a foreign exchange office.

The defendant, an ex-officer in the Interior Ministry, was charged with breaking into the forex office in the Fintas area in Al Ahmadi governorate while holding a firearm last August, Al Qabas newspaper reported.

However, he was unable to rob the place because his weapon malfunctioned, a matter that prompted him to flee the scene.

He escaped to an unknown destination after seizing a taxi at gunpoint by brandishing the weapon used in the failed heist bid.

Tipped off, police hunted for him, tracking his path through surveillance cameras. He was later arrested, admitted to his acts and disclosed the location of the hidden firearm.

During the trial sessions, a lawyer for the defendant requested that his client be referred to a psychiatrist to check his mental abilities. The defendant’s responsibility for his acts was proven and subsequently the court convicted him.

In recent months, law-enforcers, accused of wrongdoing, were taken to court and given varying penalties.

In November, a Kuwaiti court sentenced an officer and a soldier to five years in prison each after convicting them in a drug case.

The defendants, an officer at the Interior Ministry and a soldier at the Defence Ministry, were convicted of taking drugs, Kuwaiti news portal Almajilis reported.

Also in November, a Kuwaiti court sentenced a policeman to five years in prison on charges of bribery and abuse of power to frame and deport expatriates, according to a media report.

The Al Seyassah newspaper reported that the criminal court also ordered the policeman, a Kuwaiti national, to pay a fine of KD2,000 ($6,503).

The defendant was accused of exploiting his position at a police station by demanding bribes and blackmailing Asian expatriates by fabricating charges of alcohol trafficking against them and detaining them unlawfully.