A paternity ruling transformed a “Gulf” national into a “Kuwaiti”
- The forger, born in 1979, assumed the identity of a Kuwaiti born in 1985.
- Invoking a court ruling proved to be an easy route to register a name in a citizenship file.
- The presumption of good faith, along with religious and legal conscience, was prioritized in handling such cases.
- Natural logic dictates that no one should register a child who is not their own.
- Investigations revealed that the impostor has a Gulf sister residing in Kuwait.
- DNA testing confirmed that the woman is the aunt of the forger’s two sons, and also his sister.
- Official Gulf documents belonging to the forger, who fled Kuwait, and his son were discovered.
Sources familiar with the case told Al-Rai that Kuwaiti Citizenship Investigation officers received information about a Gulf national, born in 1979, who assumed the status of a Kuwaiti citizen born in 1985. He managed to obtain official documents bearing a Kuwaiti identity, despite not being a citizen.
According to the sources, the impersonation was carried out by obtaining a court ruling establishing paternity, which was exploited to include the Gulf national in a Kuwaiti citizen’s file as his son, contrary to the truth.
In this regard, the sources explained that previously, the process began with obtaining a court ruling to establish paternity, followed by using it to extract a birth certificate from the Ministry of Health in implementation of the ruling. The individual would then visit the Citizenship Administration to have his name added to the citizenship file, after which a civil ID card would be issued. He would then complete his remaining official procedures and live his life under the forged Kuwaiti identity.
Thus, the process of adding a name to a citizenship file was easy when invoking a paternity ruling and using it to obtain all official documents, at a time when DNA testing was not used to definitively verify familial relationships.
The procedures were based on the presumption of good faith on the part of applicants, excluding bad faith and the possibility that someone would register an individual with whom they had no genuine familial tie.
Furthermore, natural and sound logic dictates that no one should register a child who is not their own in their file, violating Sharia, religion, law, and ethics. Hence, the principle of good faith was prioritized in handling such cases.
In the current case, Citizenship Investigation officers received a report regarding a Gulf national who assumed the status of a Kuwaiti citizen. The investigators launched their inquiries to uncover the truth and gather evidence to substantiate the forgery.
Given that the impostor fled Kuwait, two of his sons residing in the country were summoned, and DNA samples were taken from them. These were compared with a sample from the Gulf woman residing in Kuwait. The test results confirmed a familial relationship, identifying her as their aunt and the sister of their father, who had fled Kuwait. This provided the High Committee with irrefutable evidence of the forgery.
The sources indicated that Citizenship Investigation officers successfully obtained the official Gulf documents belonging to the fugitive and one of his sons in Kuwait. It became clear that these were official and explicit Gulf documents proving that they hold Gulf nationality.
Thus, the evidence of forgery was fully established, starting from the initial information and investigations, through confirming the familial relationship between the impostor’s sons and his Gulf sister via DNA testing, to the official documents that revealed his true identity and nationality.
