A Kuwaiti court has for the first time sentenced a Bidoon (a person without a document) man to three years in prison on charges of forging a ruling to illegally obtain citizenship, a Kuwaiti newspaper has reported.
The defendant was convicted of forging a 1972 court verdict allegedly obligating the country’s Interior Ministry to issue a citizenship certificate for him as a Kuwaiti.
The man’s unlawful act was exposed after he had requested the Kuwaiti General Department of Nationality and Travel Documents to implement a purportedly final verdict awarded to his deceased father granting him citizenship.
On verifying the alleged ruling, authorities found out that it was fake, and referred the applicant to a trial at the Criminal Court.
The jailing sentence recently handed down to the man can be appealed.
A series of forgery cases have recently surfaced in Kuwait with offenders given varying jailing terms.
