The Criminal Court convicted the Syrian defendant of forging official documents to obtain Kuwaiti citizenship, imposing a seven-year prison sentence with hard labor together with an order to repay KD 600,000 in misappropriated public funds. Judicial officials said the man had used the false identity to secure government employment and associated salaries over a period of years before the Nationality Investigation Department uncovered the fraud through biometric verification. The court mandated deportation upon completion of the term, according to records from the proceedings.
Investigations traced the forgery to an arrangement in which the defendant’s family paid a Kuwaiti contact to register him under a false family file, the court found. Once enrolled, the defendant presented the fabricated nationality certificate and civil identification to obtain positions and financial entitlements reserved for Kuwaiti nationals. The KD 600,000 restitution figure represents the total undue payments received across multiple state institutions, a judicial assessment determined.
Kuwait has stepped up scrutiny of historical naturalizations, with the Official Gazette carrying a 2025 decree that revoked citizenship from 154 people who secured it through irregular means. The measure, which targeted individuals including medical professionals and athletes initially granted nationality under exceptional clauses, formed part of a wider drive to protect registry integrity. The Nationality Investigation Department has expanded its use of DNA testing and cross-checked civil records in such probes, according to government data.
Times Kuwait reported a parallel December 2025 Court of Appeal ruling that upheld a seven-year sentence and KD 350,000 fine against another Syrian who obtained Ministry of Defense employment through forged citizenship. DNA results in that case confirmed Syrian origin and no relation to the Kuwaiti file holder under whom the brothers had been listed. The Nationality Investigations Department drove the evidence gathering there as well.
Gulf News covered a May 2026 Criminal Court verdict sentencing a soldier to seven years and KD 316,000 in penalties for a three-decade fraud that included service at both the Ministry of Defense and Ministry of Interior. The soldier’s father received a seven-year term in absentia for facilitating the initial payment of KD 35,000 to a forger, that report stated. Public Authority for Civil Information biometric checks proved decisive in exposing the discrepancies.
Al-Rai detailed a September 2026 case in which two Gulf nationals received seven-year terms for citizenship document forgery, with one ordered to return more than KD 103,000 to bodies that included the Public Institution for Social Security and the Public Authority for Manpower. The court additionally dismissed the second defendant from his government post and required deportation for both after imprisonment. These decisions draw on coordinated input from security and civil authorities to maintain accurate nationality records.
