A Kuwaiti court has acquitted all 26 defendants, including a senior security official, in a high-profile case involving allegations of receiving bribes for issuing forged visas for expatriates, stating that the accusations were malicious.
Prosecutors had referred the case to the Criminal Court, where 26 individuals, including secretaries of former lawmakers, were charged with corruption related to bribery and the forging of expatriate visas for KD2,000 ($6,489) each.
Some defendants were accused of soliciting and accepting bribes and exploiting their influence to issue entry visas for expatriates and their dependents. They were also charged with facilitating a foreigner’s access to visit and residency permits in Kuwait in exchange for money.
The prosecution alleged that the primary defendant had forged the seal of the Interior Ministry’s undersecretary with the intent to use it on official documents.
Nineteen of the 26 defendants faced charges of offering bribes to the remaining seven defendants in what has been described as one of Kuwait’s largest bribery and corruption cases.
Kuwait, a country with an overall population of 4.9 million people, the majority of whom are foreigners, is striving to address its demographic imbalance and regulate its labour market.
Authorities have recently intensified a nationwide crackdown on illegal foreign residents who failed to take advantage of a three-month grace period to rectify their status.
The amnesty, which began in March, allowed illegal expatriates to either regularise their residency status or leave the country voluntarily without incurring fines. The deadline for this amnesty expired on June 30.
Last month, Kuwait introduced significant changes to its residency rules, limiting a foreigner’s temporary stay to three months, with possible extensions not exceeding one year.
Regular residency permits can now be granted for up to five years, with exceptions of up to 10 years for children of Kuwaiti women and property owners, and up to 15 years for investors under the new regulations.
