Bangladeshi expat in Kuwait jailed for 3 years for taking bribe

A Bangladeshi expatriate in Kuwait has been jailed for three years for taking bribe in exchange of illegally mediating for the vehicle registration process.

The convict is Saddam Hossain, however further details about him could not be known immediately.

Kuwait High Court on May 31, upheld the verdict against him that was earlier delivered by a lower court.

However, another accused, a Kuwaiti citizen who works in the country's traffic police department, was acquitted from the case.

Earlier, the public prosecution in Kuwait brought charges of taking bribes against the duo, according to Arabic daily Al Seyassah.

According to the probe details -- the first accused, a female employee of the Kuwaiti Traffic department in the country's Ahmadi district, took five to 10 Kuwaiti Dinar (KD) as bribe from each person for renewal of vehicles registration, while the second accused, Saddam acted as a mediator to ease the process.

Later, a probe body investigated the allegations and found that Saddam had earned around 30,000 (KD), equivalent to around Tk 85 lakh in Bangladeshi currency as bribe money and had sent half it to Bangladesh.

In September last year, Saddam was arrested and later admitted that he acted as a mediator between registration seekers and traffic employee and that he and the employee had shared the bribe money.

Based on Saddam's statement, the investigation team interrogated the female accused, who initially denied the allegations. But she admitted to her involvement later and was sent to prosecution.