KUWAIT CITY, Aug 11: Kuwait citizen Hasan Abdullah Al-Khabbaz recently visited the Al-Rai daily and showed his passport and the citizenship certificate to refute allegations that he has relinquished his Kuwaiti nationality.

Earlier it was reported by some newspapers that Khabbaz had requested the authorities in Tehran to grant him the Iranian citizenship.
Al-Khabbaz is said to have just returned from Qatar and he told the daily the whole mess was caused by the letter which has been sent by the Iranian Interpol to its Kuwaiti counterpart enquiring about his criminal history because he has shown his intention to get married to a Iranian woman.
Al-Khabbaz added if he was Iranian, he would not apply for approval from the Iranian authorities to get married to an Iranian.

“I am a Kuwaiti and I am proud of my origins,” says Al-Khabbaz who was reported to have relinquished his Kuwaiti nationality and applied for Iranian citizenship instead, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.
Al-Khabbaz had returned to the country after attending a football match between Kuwait and the UAE in Qatar. He strongly refuted all reports about his applying for Iranian citizenship and said the statement of Kuwait’s Ambassador to Iran Majdi Al-Zufairi clears all such speculations.

Defame
“I wonder why some people want to spread lies and defame innocent people,” he said, adding “I came to know about these reports while I was in Qatar.”
Al-Khabbaz praised the Interior and Foreign Affairs ministries for verifying facts and realizing that the reports were baseless.

When asked about reports that he stayed in Iran, Al-Khabbaz said he went to Iran last June to propose to an Iranian girl. “I was asked to apply for marriage permission at the Kuwait Foreign Affairs Ministry as it is a legal procedure followed in all countries. I applied and got permission on July 7, 2010. It was then sent to the Kuwait Embassy in Iran which approved the marriage. If I held Iranian citizenship, why would I be asked to apply from State of Kuwait?” he asked.

A number of Al-Khabbaz’s family members also visited the daily’s office and said they will sue all those who spread lies about their family.

However, Al-Rai daily stood by its report, saying Al-Khabbaz did apply for Iranian citizenship, but some people are trying to refute the fact, including Ambassador Al-Zufairi.
It said Iranian Interpol said in an official letter that Kuwaiti citizen Hassan Al-Khabbaz applied for Iranian citizenship in order to marry an Iranian girl and submitted a copy of the fingerprint form.
According to Al-Rai daily’s sources, Al-Khabbaz left for Tehran on Feb 21 and returned to Kuwait on March 28. He also left the country in June 2010 and returned back on July 14, 2010.
The daily also added that Al-Khabbaz was sentenced to 15 years imprisonment and fined KD 10,000 in a drugs case.