Abu Dhabi: Kuwaiti authorities have arrested a Kuwait citizen for assaulting an Egyptian cashier in a store in the Gulf country, Egypt’s emigration ministry announced Sunday.
The incident surfaced two days earlier when a two-minute video went viral showing the Kuwaiti national slapping the Egyptian worker three times while on duty before a number of other store workers and customers intervened to stop the assault.
The video sparked anger on social media among users who called on Egyptian authorities to take action on the assault. The case has been referred to a misdemeanour court, Egypt’s ministry statement added. Minister of Emigration Nabila Makram praised Kuwaiti authorities for treating all workers in the country equally. Egypt’s consul general in Kuwait said it was an isolated incident and does not represent relations between the two countries.
Hundreds of Egyptian expatriates stranded in the country were repatriated recently due to the coronavirus pandemic.
The numbers of Egyptians in Kuwait reached around 445,000 in August 2018, according to Egypt’s Ministry of Manpower.
The Kuwaiti citizen was promptly arrested with police filing a misdemeanour case to court, Egypt’s consul general in Kuwait.
The Sabah Al Ahmed association, which owns the store in which the incident took place, expressed its support for the cashier.
Assaults on Egyptian expatriates in some Gulf countries spur anger on social media from time to time.
In September 2019, three individuals broke into a mobile phone shop in Kuwait and beat two Egyptians working there.
Kuwait’s Criminal Court sentenced a male citizen in September 2018 to 17 years in prison for brutal physical assault of an Egyptian expatriate during working hours at a motor repair shop in the industrial Shewaykh District.
