Well-known Gulf poet gets life for forging Kuwaiti citizenship

The Criminal Court, presided over by Counselor Abdulwahab Al-Maili, has sentenced a well-known Gulf poet to life imprisonment for forging Kuwaiti nationality, in a high-profile case that has shocked the literary and public spheres.

In addition to the prison sentence, the court imposed a fine of 1,793,000 Kuwaiti dinars on the accused and ordered his deportation after serving his term. The case against a co-defendant — believed to have facilitated the fraud —was dismissed due to his death, reports Al-Rai daily

The investigation revealed that the poet illegally obtained Kuwaiti citizenship in 1995 by being added to the civil file of a deceased citizen when he was 34 years old. He had also renounced his original nationality, assumed a Kuwaiti name, and secured a forged birth certificate claiming his birth year as 1972, although he was actually born 11 years earlier.

The accused left Kuwait in 2016, and in June 2024, authorities revoked his citizenship and of his 27 children, both male and female, who had derived their nationality from him.

The forgery came to light following a covert investigation by the Nationality Investigation Department, which matched the physical appearance of the fake citizen with video footage of the poet performing at public events.

Investigators also noted the absence of any Kuwaiti educational records, which further substantiated the forgery.

The case is considered one of the most prominent instances of citizenship fraud in Kuwait in recent years.