KUWAIT: The special ministers’ trial court on Tuesday postponed the second hearing in the trial of former defense minister Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah to June 24 to hear the testimonies of witnesses. The first hearing was held three weeks ago, during which Sheikh Ahmad denied corruption charges that he misappropriated around KD 400,000 for personal use from the ministry’s secret funds.
During Tuesday’s session, Sheikh Ahmad deposited to the court a cheque in the value of the alleged graft amount, while his lawyer demanded details of secret funds spent in the defense ministry since 1962 until he was appointed to the post. Sheikh Ahmad was charged by the court of using the KD 400,000 to purchase vehicles and watches for his personal use when he was minister of defense between June 2023 and January the next year.
The court also postponed another case to the same date in which the public prosecution challenged a decision by a special investigation committee to shelve other charges against Sheikh Ahmad that he interfered in parliamentary elections. Sheikh Ahmad, 61, had occupied several ministerial posts in the past 25 years, starting with energy minister, information minister, minister for development and economic affairs and others. He also occupied senior international sports posts.
He is the second prominent minister of the previous government to be tried on graft charges. Four months ago, the same court sentenced former interior and defense minister Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Sabah to 14 years in jail after convicting him of misappropriation of public funds. The court convicted him of embezzling KD 9.5 million from the ministry of defense and KD 500,000 from the interior ministry. The court ordered Sheikh Talal to return KD 10 million to the two ministries and fined him KD 20 million.
Sheikh Talal has challenged the sentence to the court of cassation, the top court in the country. In recent years, Kuwaiti courts have jailed several ministers and senior officials over corruption cases and ordered them to repay embezzled funds.
