15 Kuwaiti officials jailed over 2007 electricity scandal

The Kuwaiti court of misdemeanours yesterday sentenced the current Minister of Electricity and Water, Ahmad Al-Jassar, and 14 senior officials at the ministry for two years each in prison and ordered their dismissal over the 2007 faulty generators scandal, judicial sources said.

According to the sources, who preferred not to be named, the court also asked the officials to pay 20,000 Kuwaiti dinars ($66,000) each. The defendants will appeal the decision.

The case concerns the 2007 emergency power plan when a local company was given the contract to urgently import generators that were found to be faulty. Some 400 million Kuwaiti dinars ($1.2 billion) were spent from the state treasury to purchase the generators without a decree from the Emir and without informing the National Assembly. Officials said the plan was “full of corruption”.

The court acquitted former Audit Bureau undersecretary Abdul Aziz Al-Roumi in the case.