Sources told Al-Rai that the Nationality Investigations Department initiated the case upon receiving information that a man registered as a Kuwaiti citizen since the 1960s was actually Syrian. The intelligence noted that five Syrian nephews of the deceased were living in Kuwait while holding Syrian nationality, which conflicted with the official family tree in the citizenship records. Authorities then ordered genetic testing on relevant family members to resolve the discrepancy.
The tests compared samples from the children of the deceased Syrian with those from the children of his actual Syrian brothers. Results showed the groups were cousins, proving no connection to the Kuwaiti uncles listed in the official file. The Kuwaiti men, whose father died in the 1970s, stated during interviews that the Syrian had been fraudulently added to their father’s citizenship file and was not a blood relative.
According to the sources, the deceased Syrian had 10 children whose descendants brought the total number of fraudulent citizenship holders linked to the file to nearly 60. This included approximately 50 grandchildren who had also received Kuwaiti nationality based on the false lineage. The department’s findings led to the systematic revocation of all these citizenships.
Al-Rai reported that this revelation came after the uncles explicitly denied any sibling relationship with the Syrian man. Their confirmation aligned perfectly with the DNA outcomes that severed the claimed family ties. The department has applied similar DNA verification techniques to other long-standing nationality files.
Further details from the investigation revealed that the forgery originated with the Kuwaiti father who improperly inserted the Syrian name into his family record before his death. This single act enabled the fraudulent transmission of citizenship across generations for more than 60 years. The five Syrian nephews played a key role in exposing the truth through their distinct nationality status and the subsequent genetic matches.
The Nationality Investigations Department has handled multiple similar cases in the past year involving forged citizenship claims by foreign nationals, with DNA serving as the decisive evidence in each instance. In one parallel probe, authorities identified over 100 fraudulent cases tied to a single extended Syrian family network. Officials continue to pursue such irregularities to safeguard the integrity of Kuwait’s citizenship system.
