KUWAIT CITY, May 29: The Court of Appeals overturned the verdict issued to sentence a candidate of the Fifth Constituency, his campaign agents, and two citizens to two-year imprisonment with hard labor for buying votes in the Fifth Constituency. The court instead just fined them KD 5,000. According to the case file, the Public Prosecution charged the first, second and third defendants with secretly attempting through intermediaries - the fourth and fifth defendants - to buy votes in the Fifth Constituency, and having the first and third defendants, in agreement with the aforementioned defendants, offer a sum of money of KD 500.

In implementation of that agreement, the first defendant, being a candidate of the Fifth Constituency in the 2023 National Assembly elections scheduled to be held on June 6, 2023, stipulated that the aforementioned amount of KD 500 be paid by the second and third defendants. This is according to what was proven from the defendants’ confession, from the lists of voters from the Fifth Constituency in the possession of the defendants, and from the conversations on the mobile phones of the aforementioned defendants.

They accepted and requested cash sums - as described in the previous accusation - for the purpose of carrying out mediation work to entice voters in the Fifth Constituency to encourage them to vote for the first defendant in the elections. This was by obtaining from the first and second defendants a portion of the agreement amount, amounting to KD 30,000, via bank transfer to the account of the fourth defendant at Kuwait Finance House, to be divided equally between them, and that they obtain the remaining part after the election. This was according to the confessions of the third, fourth and fifth defendants, and what was proven from the bank transfer of the amount subject to the agreement, as well as from lists of names of voters in the Fifth Constituency in the possession of the defendants, and from the conversations on the mobile phones of the aforementioned defendants.
By Jaber Al-Hamoud
Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff