Appeals court sentences Syrian to 7 years, orders repayment of 600,000 dinars and 1.2 million fine for citizenship forgery

The Court of Appeal sentenced a Syrian national to seven years in prison, ordered him to repay approximately 600,000 Kuwaiti dinars, and fined him an amount equal to twice that sum, on charges of forging Kuwaiti citizenship and falsely claiming affiliation with a citizen who had died in 1971. The case dates back to allegations that the defendant’s father had colluded with the deceased citizen to register his son in the citizen’s nationality file in exchange for a financial payment, thereby enabling the son to unlawfully obtain and benefit from Kuwaiti citizenship, including securing a military position at the Ministry of Defense. The defendant’s Syrian brothers had filed a complaint against him following a dispute, leading to his arrest by the Nationality Investigation Department, where he provided a detailed confession to the crime, which he had known about since 2000.