Abu Dhabi: A Kuwaiti defaulter on a personal loan has offered to help 2,000 citizens repay their loans, local media reported.
Ahmed Al Rasheed, who asked Kuwaiti defaulters to pay him a nominal monthly amount for 20 years, was interrogated by the Public Prosecutor on Friday.
After a marathon 8-hour interrogation session, the prosecutor ordered Al Rasheed be held on charges of fraud via social media and running money exchange activities without a licence, Al Qabas reported.
An informed source said the accused denied the charges against him, and told prosecutors that no one was behind him, refusing to disclose his plan for repaying the debts of the Kuwaiti citizens.
According to the source, Al Rasheed said, “Let me go now and give me two weeks, and I will prove that I will repay the loans of 2,000 citizens.”
Al Rasheed’s lawyer, Youssef Al Gharballi, told Al Qabas the accused is innocent until proven guilty, and “no charge is legally applicable to my client.”
The lawyer also affirmed his objection to the way his client was arrested on the street, saying, “We are not in a police state, but in a state of law and a humanitarian nation.”
In a new twist in Al Rasheed’s case, the Public Prosecution ordered the detention of the suspect and a number of his aides, despite the fact that they had been arrested twice previously by the General Department of Criminal Investigation, in connection with the same case before being released.
Al Rasheed was first arrested on July 8, against the backdrop of an advertisement posted on social media, in which he claimed he would help citizens repay their debts.
Investigation showed he asked defaulters to pay him a symbolic monthly amount for 20 years. He also stipulated that the debtors should visit him in his Khaitan office.
Although he was found to be in debt and wanted to repay bank loans, Al Rasheed was released and later re-published his offer on a larger scale.
Security sources said the officers filed a complaint with the Public Prosecutor against Al Rasheed after he was arrested again on September 13. But he was released for the second time.
The sources explained Al Rasheed was arrested for the third time on October 7, and referred him to the Public Prosecution, which ordered his detention after it became clear that he was unable to repay a personal loan, which prompted banks to take a legal action against him.
A number of citizens rushed to cancel the power of attorney they signed for fear of being exploited by the accused, the sources said.
