A former Kuwaiti minister was arrested upon his return to Kuwait in connection with a corruption case for which he had previously been convicted and sentenced to prison.
Mubarak Alarou, who served as the Minister of Social Affairs from December 2021 to August 2022, was detained on Thursday at Kuwait International Airport. He remains in custody while awaiting a ruling from the country’s top appeals court, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al Qabas.
In November, another court sentenced Alarou to seven years in prison on charges of profiteering through a business contract, misusing public funds, and influence peddling, as reported by the media.
The case, which involved other government officials, led to similar sentences for a former ministerial undersecretary and an ex-head of the Federation of Cooperative Societies. They were accused of awarding a tender to a company without adhering to legal procedures for personal gain.
A similar sentence was also given to the owner of the company involved, who was ordered to be deported due to his status as a Gulf national.
On Thursday, the Court of Cassation scheduled a ruling for May 30 on appeals against the prison terms given to the defendants in this high-profile case. The court denied requests from defense lawyers to release the defendants pending the final verdicts. Alarou, 46, had also served as a lawmaker in 2020.
In recent years, Kuwait has intensified its anti-corruption efforts, uncovering several such cases. Last October, a Kuwaiti court sentenced an Egyptian expatriate to 15 years in prison and imposed a KD1 million fine after he was convicted of embezzling funds from the Kuwaiti Teachers’ Association, where he worked as a financial manager.
By FCCT Editorial Team
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