KUWAIT: The criminal court yesterday sentenced a senior Kuwaiti municipal official and a Syrian to seven years in prison with labor and fined them KD 740 million. It also ordered them to repay KD 370 million on charges of embezzling public funds by forging licenses of private companies operating in three sites in Subbiya and Salmi.

Case papers indicate the Municipality discovered these sites were illegally used by private companies to extract sand, in addition to setting up illegal warehouses in the north and south of Kuwait, resulting in huge gains. Investigations led to the Kuwaiti official and his Syrian assistant who had given fake licenses to the companies and were taking money from them. - A Saleh