‘Aro’ & Co. corruption case hearing delayed

KUWAIT CITY, May 4: The Court of Cassation has adjourned to May 30 the appeal submitted by former minister Mubarak Al-Aro and others against the ruling issued by a lower court which sentenced them to seven-year imprisonment for profiteering from a tender of the Ministry of Social Affairs.

Al-Aro was arrested at dawn two days ago upon his return to the country via Kuwait International Airport, and he has been detained until a ruling is issued. The lower court convicted AlAro and the rest of the defendants in the case of profiteering from a tender of the Ministry of Social Affairs and harming the public funds, due to Al-Aro’s agreement with the company owned by the fourth defendant to conclude a contract that includes a system for monitoring products in cooperative societies.

However, the contract was not implemented, which proves the violations attributed to them regarding the incidents of profiteering with that company at the expense of public money, the details of which was submitted in a report by the Ministry of Social Affairs to the ministers’ investigation committee.

Novelist fined: The Court of Appeals upheld the verdict issued by a lower court which imposed a fine of KD 3,000 on the Kuwaiti novelist Buthaina Al-Essa for inciting a violation of public order and the national interest by selling a book on literature of stateless people in the Gulf without the approval of the Ministry of Information.

The case goes back to Al-Essa’s referral to court on charges of circulating and selling the book titled “Stateless People in the Gulf” in Takween Bookstore.