Gang jailed 10 yrs, fined KD199 mln in cash fraud

KUWAIT CITY, June 22: The State Security Criminal Court on Monday issued 46 rulings in various cases, including money laundering, terrorism financing, sympathy for terrorism and incitement of sedition, reports Al-Seyassah daily. The most prominent rulings sentenced 13 defendants to varying prison terms and fined them, along with commercial entities, an estimated total of KD310 million.

According to the case files, the court sentenced four defendants to 10 years in prison and fined them about KD199 million in one money laundering case. It also fined commercial entities linked to the case about KD99 million -- the value of the laundered funds, and permanently banned them from engaging in commercial activity. A summary of the ruling will be published in the official gazette and on relevant websites. The court also sentenced four defendants, including three Kuwaiti citizens and a Lebanese, to 10 years in prison and fined them KD6 million for financing and joining the Lebanese Hezbollah.

It sentenced a Kuwaiti citizen to 10 years in prison and fined him KD6.07 million in a money laundering case, while it sentenced ‘X’ platform user Fawaz Al-Kathiri to five years in prison in a state security case. It sentenced two Kuwaiti citizens to three years in prison for sympathizing with and inciting sedition, and sentenced a non-Kuwaiti to two years in prison followed by deportation. On the other hand, the court acquitted 33 Kuwaiti citizens in several cases and overturned in absentia sentences against many other Kuwaiti citizens, acquitting them of inciting sedition.