A court ruling passed a judgment in the infamous case of the Bangladesh MP Shahid Islam, on charges of human trafficking and money laundering, sentencing him to 4 years imprisonment, and a fine of KD 1,900,000, Al Qabas daily reported. His co-conspirator Assistant Undersecretary for Training Affairs at the Ministry of Interior Major General Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah was handed the same sentence.
MP Saadoun Hammad and former MP Salah Khurshid were acquitted.
Investigations were launched against the former Bangladeshi lawmaker last year, who was running the Marafie Kuwaitia Group as managing director and CEO. Mohammad Shahid Islam is estimated to have obtained KD5 million in assets in Kuwait. During his investigations, all his bank accounts and that of his company were frozen. A local daily reported that he faced several charges – human trafficking, money laundering, fraud related to employment of workers in his company, violating the residence law, and bribery.
It came to light from witness accounts that the convicted was part of an organized gang made up of a Kuwaiti person and Muhammad Shahid Islam using a company owned by the Kuwaiti, to recruit and bring in workers from Bangladesh by fraudulent means in exchange for payments ranging between KD2500 and KD2700 dinars for work visas to be employed at the company.
The Al Qabas report added that the trio occupied sensitive positions in three major companies that brought over 20,000 Bangladeshi workers to Kuwait in exchange for more than KD50 million dinars.
Although the company was closed due to legal violations the workers arrived in Kuwait to discover their visas were fake, and they were forcibly employed in another company owned by Muhammad Shahid Islam.
They were forced to work against their will for long working hours in inhuman working conditions without wages or being provided with adequate housing according to their stipulated contracts.
He attacked those who objected and threatened them with false absconding cases. Some workers in the two companies were witnesses to verify the accusations. They added that they were brought in through a travel agency owned by the accused Muhammad Shahid Islam in Bangladesh.
During investigations, there was evidence uncovered that the accused Muhammad Shahid Islam collected money in fraudulent ways, intentionally hiding some of its sources which was acquired from his victims from human trafficking crimes, and he also gave bribes to government employees to facilitate his unlawful transactions including “no objection” visas, so he could bring in workers from his community.
Initially, the accused denied all the charges levied against him and denied his link to the criminal activities.
However, a search of his residence and company owned by him and others, produced documents that were evidence of his crimes, including cheques he paid to some employees in government agencies/ministries to speed up illegal transactions.
He admitted to offering gifts and assisting his friends in ‘several agencies’ and they in turn helped him complete the company’s transactions.
He was also accused of acting like a mafia boss, demanding ‘taxes’ from the poor and low-income workers. Witnesses in the case offered evidence of the Bangladeshi MP’s grip on compatriot workers in Kuwait. “The accused’s men imposed a ‘royalty’ on workers, at a value of KD8 dinars per day,” a witness said.
The testimony of 11 expatriates who were brought from Bangladesh said they had paid large sums of money not just for visas but also for residency visa renewals.
During interrogation, Islam reportedly confessed to have provided KD1.1 million by cheque to an official at the Ministry of Interior, one million dinars in cash to another official, in addition to “bags” of millions of dinars in cash to a third official, Kuwaiti media reported.
Prosecutors heard testimonies from scores of Bangladeshi workers who had been brought into Kuwait by the accused, from Bangladesh, for money. This trading in work visas allowed him to siphon off money to the United States for laundering.
The accused transferred suspicious amounts to the tune of millions of dinars to European and Gulf banks in the days leading to the investigation, as he was preparing to leave Kuwait, after he had learned that his name had appeared in investigations in residency visa trading, human trafficking and money laundering.
The convicted was a sitting Member of Bangladesh Parliament and so is his wife, and ran four companies involved with providing cleaners through government contracts in Kuwait, while employing 9,000 workers.
Read Today's News TODAY... on our Telegram Channel click here to join and receive all the latest updates t.me/thetimeskuwait
