KUWAIT: The court of cassation yesterday rejected a petition by the lawyers of the defendants in the Abdali Cell case to annul their imprisonment. Meanwhile, the court of appeal yesterday adjourned a case filed against 70 citizens over charges of breaking into the National Assembly, and set a hearing on Nov 27 to pass its verdict. Notably, the criminal court had acquitted all the defendants. Separately, the comprehensive court reviewed a case demanding that the government declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization. The government's attorneys attended the hearings and demanded dismissing the case on grounds that the demands put forward are part of the government's sovereign actions.

Fake certificates

Director of the Public Authority for Applied Education and Training (PAAET) Dr Ahmad Al-Athari canceled the appointment of four recently-hired teaching staff members and referred them to the prosecution for using fake documents and certificates.

Land plots

The government will distribute 1,000 land plots to citizens who had applied to get land for industrial purposes by the first quarter of 2018, well-informed governmental sources said. "Kuwait has never distributed such a large number of industrial land plots since independence in 1961," the sources said, pointing out that the land plots would provide hundreds of job opportunities, as 25 workers would be registered per plot, in addition to creating more job opportunities for Kuwaiti youth in the private sector. The sources said the government will distribute gas stations to entrepreneurs next year and that every station will include 10 commercial activities operated by 5-10 workers per activity.

Services to entrepreneurs

Minister of Social Affairs and Labor and Minster of State for Economic Development Hind Al-Sabeeh said the number of government bodies providing services to entrepreneurs at the Siddiq Center has increased to 12. Speaking while touring the Siddiq Center for Small Projects along with Minister of Commerce and Industry and Acting Minister of State for Youth Affairs Khaled Al-Roudhan, Sabeeh highly praised the number of Kuwaiti volunteers who started the center.

Sabeeh said the center was developing daily to help young entrepreneurs start their own businesses. Responding to a question about monitoring small projects to prevent manipulating them, Sabeeh said control teams had so far found 25 small projects had been misused and that legal action will be taken against those responsible. Roudhan said that it was one of the government's goals to facilitate the business environment through teamwork and integration amongst various ministries.

Boeing lease

Well-informed sources said that Kuwait Airways (KAC) signed a deal with the Aviation Lease and Finance Company (ALAFCO) in August to lease four Boeing aircrafts (B777-300ER) for 12 years effective from 2017 at a total value of $753 million. The sources explained that the annual lease value per plane will be $15.7 million, ie $63 million annually for the four planes. Notably, ALAFCO had announced winning a bid offered by KAC to purchase four planes at a total value of $1.3 billion to be leased by KAC after conducting several economic feasibility studies and after the board of directors decided leasing the planes instead of buying them to ensure profitability in the long run.

By A Saleh