The Kuwaiti Court of Cassation sentenced a former Bangladeshi lawmaker to seven years in prison for human trafficking and money laundering.
It sentenced former MP Mohammed Shahid to seven years in prison, a fine of KD2.7 million, and ordered the defendant to be deported after serving the sentence.
It also handed down similar jail terms to Kuwaiti Undersecretary of the Interior Ministry Maj. Gen. Mazen al-Jarrah and Hassan al-Khedr, and ordered their sacking from their government posts on charges of bribery in the same case.
It sentenced ex-Kuwaiti parliamentarian Salah Khurshed to seven years in prison and ordered him to pay a fine of KD740,000.
The court upheld the acquittal of Kuwaiti MP Saadoun Hammad.
The authorities arrested the Bangladeshi MP in Kuwait on June 7 last year. He confessed to helping senior officials and the interior ministry in bringing migrant workers on fake contracts in exchange for sums of money.
The MP spent many years working in Kuwait and later returned to his country and became a member of parliament.
The Criminal Investigation Department in Kuwait charged him with human trafficking, money laundering, and torturing employees of his company, based on complaints from five Bangladeshi migrant workers.
The accused MP was arrested in his home in the Mishref area and was charged with receiving money from dozens of workers in return for bringing them in from Bangladesh to Kuwait through a company he managed with illegal assistance from Kuwaiti officials accused in the case.
He also paid bribes to influential people to obtain tenders and forced workers to pay annual royalties in exchange for work contracts.
