By B Izzak

KUWAIT: The ministers court yesterday issued a seven-year jail sentence against a former health minister and issued the same sentence against a former ministry undersecretary, a current senior official and an agent of a foreign company after convicting them for squandering public funds. The court, in its first jail sentence against a former minister, asked the convicts to pay KD 10,000 each to suspend the implementation of the jail term, but asked all of them to return KD 81 million to the state.

The minister and officials have been on trial before the special court for the past several months on graft charges. The minister was grilled by MP Rakan Al-Nasef over alleged financial and administrative violations. Nasef yesterday welcomed the court verdict, describing it as "historic", adding the verdict launches a new phase in which more ministers and senior officials will be tried. The lawmaker called on the prime minister to closely watch ministers in order to prevent any violations against public funds in the future.

In another court case, the criminal court yesterday sentenced a well-known stateless activist for life for instigating stateless people or bedoons in Kuwait to resort to violence to obtain their rights. The activist, Mohammad Wali Al-Enezi, is not in Kuwait and the sentence was issued in absentia. He has been living abroad for years. The court sentenced two other bedoons to a 10-year jail term each for taking part in protests demanding rights for bedoons, including citizenship. The court acquitted a dozen other bedoon protesters.

Meanwhile, Nasef yesterday criticized Minister of Social Affairs and Labor Ghadeer Aseeri for taking harsh disciplinary action against a senior ministry official. He said he will support the no-confidence motion against the minister next week. MP Saleh Ashour warned Finance Minister Mariam Al-Aqeel of a grilling for not providing retired people their complete rights and for making controversial statements about the need to review public wages.

MP Abdullah Al-Kandari yesterday asked Interior Minister Anas Al-Saleh about alleged corruption in granting Kuwaiti citizenship. He asked the minister if the ministry has launched an administrative probe into the citizenship issue.