Kuwait suspends army official for taking bribe from Bangladesh MP

The Kuwait government has suspended Major General Mazen Al-Jarrah, assistant undersecretary of the Ministry of Interior, on allegations of receiving bribes from and making a dubious financial transaction with Bangladesh MP Mohammad Shahid Islam, Arab Times reports.

Deputy Prime Minister Anas Al-Saleh issued a decree suspending Major General Mazen Al Jarrah after Attorney General Dirar Al-Asousi officially wrote to him concerning the investigations conducted by the public prosecution in the case of the Bangladeshi MP who is involved in visa trade and human trafficking.

The decision came after investigating into the case of the Bangladeshi parliamentarian revealed the suspicion of financial transactions and bribery.

The prosecution’s investigation discovered that Al-Jarrah gave nod to several transactions when he was the assistant undersecretary for citizenship, passports and residence affairs, in exchange for money as a bribe.

Bangladesh lawmaker Islam named the army officer as one of the officials who took a bribe from his company to allow his visa trading.

While the circle of indictment widened in the case of Bangladeshi MP Mohammad Shahid Islam, remanded in custody on charges of human trafficking and money laundering, a government scandal emerged on Sunday, Kuwaiti media reported.

A number of government agencies have extended more than four government contracts of companies owned by Shahid Islam.

The contracts of government agencies were completed years ago, but some of them ended over the past two months, and were extended, in view of the authorities’ needs amid the coronavirus pandemic, said sources.

The total value of the four contracts is one million Kuwait dinars or $3.25 million, and most of them are related to workers employed as cleaners.

The sources said one of the government agencies, which manage vital facilities, sent a letter earlier this month to the central agency for public tenders to extend the contract with a Bangladeshi lawmaker, starting from Jul 1 to Jan 19, 2021, but the agency postponed the tenders for consideration.

They added there is another government agency with religious activity that has recently been assigned additional duties to a company of the Bangladeshi member of parliament, who was managing the cleaning of facilities for only one governorate in the original contract, and another governorate was added to his work, which raised the value of the contract to 720,000 dinars ($2.34 million), and it was also extended until the end of November 2020.

MP Shahid Islam runs Marafie Kuwaitia Group as managing director and CEO and has five million dinars in assets in Kuwait. He has four companies in Kuwait, working in general trade, contracting and cleaning of streets and buildings.