Khaberni - The Kuwaiti Criminal Court issued its verdict in the case of manipulation in commercial draws, sentencing 19 defendants including the first (Commerce employee) to 10 years in prison and fined them 3 million dinars, and also sentenced 28 defendants to 4 years in prison, while 36 defendants were acquitted and discharged.
The court noted in its rationale the severity of the actions by the defendants, especially the first defendant in his capacity as a public employee - head of the free trade department at the Ministry of Commerce and Industry - for deceit and manipulation of his role to achieve undeserved personal gains through unethical behavior that undermines the principle of justice and equal opportunities.
The court stated that this type of fraud undermines the credibility of the draws and weakens the confidence of the participating public in the organizing bodies, creates feelings of frustration and injustice among others, harms the participants' rights, undermines public trust in transactions, and leads to the destruction of reliability in official documents and commercial transactions, which hinders dealings between individuals and institutions and damages the state's financial reputation with international institutions.
The court affirmed that the public office was not granted to be used for personal interests, but it is a trust that is only fulfilled by integrity and detachment from all desires, and whoever purposefully breaches it sends a toxic message that rights are obtained by trickery not by merit, a severe violation that necessitates legal accountability of him and other defendants and the application of the prescribed sanctions against them as deterrence and protection of public order.
The Public Prosecution emphasized that the incidents in the commercial draw case involving 73 persons are not an individual error but an organized crime through a network aimed at manipulating the results of several commercial draws and harming the fairness of their processes.
The Public Prosecution pointed out during its previous plea before the Criminal Court that the defendants exploited the public office and weaknesses in oversight, with the aim of achieving illicit financial gains and sharing them among its members.
