Cairo: Kuwaiti police arrested an expert convicted of obtaining Kuwaiti citizenship through forgery many years ago as the country is clamping down on nationality fraud, local media reported.
He was taken to prison to serve a 12-year sentence handed down to him on charges of forgery, they said.
Born in 1972, the Syrian man had joined the Kuwaiti army where he served for 25 years before retirement. He reportedly married a Saudi woman and has two children now staying in the kingdom.
The forgery crime happened when the man was aged 5 when his father agreed to transfer his parentage to a Kuwaiti citizen in return for a sum of money, the reports said.
The Kuwaiti man is already dead. There was no word about the fate of the Syrian’s biological father.
Arrest triggers online controversy
However, the news of the arrest and the circumstances surrounding the crime triggered an online controversy.
Some commentators expressed sympathy for the convict, arguing that he does not deserve punishment because the crime was committed while he was still a little child. “What wrong has he done? Do you want him when he was aged 5 to tell his dad not to register him in another’s name? How odd!” said a commentator.
There was no immediate comment from authorities.
Public urged to report forgery
Kuwait has withdrawn its citizenship from more than 200 people since early March due to fraud or holding another nationality, media reported.
Last week, the Kuwaiti Interior Ministry set up a hotline to receive reports about holders of citizenship obtained through forgery.
The ministry’s General Directorate of Nationality and Travel Documents also called on the public to report about Kuwaitis holding dual nationality.
The directorate urged members of the public with information on forged or dual nationals to report it via the hotline for investigations, promising the whistleblowers full secrecy.
Under Kuwait’s naturalisation law, citizenship is withdrawn if the holder obtained it through fraud, false statements, or convicted of a dishonouring crime or a breach of trust within the first 15 years of getting citizenship.
Dual citizenship is also banned in Kuwait.
