MoI Employee Arrested for Extortion & Abuse of Power Against Expats

Living in Kuwait is quite challenging at the moment mainly because of what the government is doing to limit the number of expat workers in the country through its nationalization scheme or “Kuwaitization” to allow more Kuwaitis to enter the workforce.

Other than this situation, expats also face corrupt individuals in the form of recruiters and even government workers who take advantage of their situation and use their power to gain privileges from foreign nationals, and to have them do as they bid them.

MoI Employee Arrested Over Charges of Extortion and Abuse of Power against Expats
Credits: Connor Tarter/Flickr

Authorities Arrest MoI Employee for Extorting Money from Expats

In relation to this, personnel from the Criminal Investigations Department from the district of Abdullah Al-Mubarak have caught on the criminal activity of an employee from the Ministry of Interior who was blackmailing expatriates by threatening them with administrative deportation and robbing them of their possessions – money and valuables – by using his position, as shared in a report by the Arab Times Online.

According to report from authorities, the arrest came after the Farwaniya police received complaints that the suspect in uniform was extorting money from expatriates, especially in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh. Upon gaining interest, the case was handed over to the CID men from Abdullah Al-Mubarak who was issued an arrest warrant from the Public Prosecutor and arrested the ministry personnel.

Upon arrest of the person of interest and interrogation, the defendant admitted to robbing dozens of expatriates (Arabs and Asians). He also admitted to frequenting suspicious apartments posing as the officer responsible for checking their IDs. The defendant, who is a forensic specialist, has been referred to the Prosecution on charges of looting expatriates and abuse of power.

Corruption at this level of the government has already caused tens and dozens of expats seeking legal authorization to reside and continue to work in the country, significant losses and betrayal of their trust as a person in authority.

Hopefully, justice will be served duly to the corrupt ministry personnel so that others who thrive on this kind of practice, even in other sectors of the government, will have to think twice when pursuing these kinds of unlawful activities against the more vulnerable (expat) populations in the country.

In such cases, victims can file individual or collective complaints against the person who has taken advantage of them by means of their position or authority in order to finally put a stop on their corrupt activities, which also puts the government in bad light.

ALSO READ: PACI Recommends Opening Service Centres for Expats Similar to Citizens’ 

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