Cairo: Kuwait’s prosecutors have demanded tougher penalties than the verdicts recently issued in a high-profile case involving a Bangladeshi lawmaker-cum-businessman.
Last month, a Kuwaiti criminal court sentenced the Bangladeshi lawmaker to four years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of KD1.9 million on charges of human trafficking and bribery.
The lawmaker, named in the media as Mohammed Shahid Islam, was charged with receiving money from dozens of workers in return for bringing them in from Bangladesh to Kuwait through a company he managed with illegal assistance from Kuwaiti officials charged in the case.
He has reportedly amassed KD5 million worth of assets in the Gulf country.
The Kuwaiti public prosecution contested the rulings handed down to the prime defendant and convicted accomplices, demanding tougher penalties, Al Qabas newspaper reported.
Prosecutors are still investigating other “state security” charges linked to them, Al Qabas said, citing what it termed as a well-informed source. No details were disclosed.
The court has already sentenced Undersecretary of the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Mazen Al Jarrah; Hassan Al Khedr, a manpower director; and ex-parliamentarian Nawaf Al Muteiri to four years in prison each in the same case. Both Kuwaiti officials were charged with receiving bribes in return for illegally facilitating Islam’s transactions.
The court demanded Al Jarrah and Al Muteiri to pay a fine of KD1.9 million each while it fined Al Khedr KD180,000.
The court ordered Al Jarrah and Al Khedr be dismissed from their government jobs.
A fugitive Syrian man and another Bangladeshi defendant were also handed down three years in jail each and ordered to be deported from Kuwait after serving the sentencing.
Meanwhile, sitting MP Saadoun Hamad and ex-lawmaker Salah Khurshed were acquitted of charges of influence peddling and receiving bribery from Islam. Prosecutors have also appealed against the acquittals.
