Ex-MP Papul’s aides jailed in Kuwait for money laundering

The Kuwait High Court has sentenced two associates of former Laxmipur-2 lawmaker Shahid Islam aka Papul to five years in jail for money laundering case.

The covicts -- Sheikh Mazen Al-Jarrah, assistant under-secretary of the foreign ministry, and Nawaf Al- Shalahi, a former candidate for the national parliament -- were also fined 1.36 million Kuwaiti dinars, according to  Kuwait's Arabic newspaper Al Qabas and Arab Times on Wednesday.

The Court of Appeals, headed by Counselor Wael Al-Ateeqi rejected the criminal court's verdict and passed the order for taking bribe money from Papul.

The criminal court had earlier adjourned the hearing of the money laundering case citing pendency of the final verdict in a case of human trafficking against the accused.

The public prosecution told the court that both the accused had committed money laundering offences.

The public prosecution accused the duo of money laundering of 860,000 Kuwaiti dinars through cheques, which were taken as bribes from Papul.

A case was registered with the Capital Prosecution Office against the two in this connection.

Earlier on November 28 last year, Kuwait's appellate court, in its final verdict in the high-profile case of human trafficking and money laundering, Papul to seven years in prison and fined 2.7 million Kuwaiti dinars (about Tk 77 crore in Bangladeshi currency at that time).

After the sentence, the court also ordered the expulsion of Papul from Kuwait.

In the same case, Mazen Al Jarrah and Hasan al-Khedr, director of the manpower department, were also sentenced to seven years in prison and suspended them from their official posts on charges of bribery.

The court also sentenced former Kuwaiti MP Salah Khurshed to seven years in prison and fined him 700,040 Kuwaiti dinars in the same case.

Papul is currently serving the sentence in Kuwait.

Papul was arrested by Kuwait's Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on June 7, 2020. At that time, he was an independent lawmaker from Laxmipur-2 constituency.

Based on the complaint of five Bangladeshi migrant workers, the CID charged him with human trafficking, money laundering and torture of his company's employees.

Later, during interrogation, Papul confessed to receiving support from the Kuwaiti Ministry of Home Affairs, Manpower Department, public representatives in bringing migrant workers on fake contracts in exchange for money.

According to an earlier report by Al Qabas, 20,000 Bangladeshi workers were brought to Kuwait by Papul in exchange of more than 50 million Kuwaiti dinars.

According to reports, Papul had an annual net profit of around two million Kuwaiti dinars after all the bribes and money spent on gifts in exchange for facilitating transactions and paperwork to bring in workers from Bangladesh.

Earlier on December 27, 2020, a Dhaka court ordered freezing 617 bank accounts of Papul, his wife Selina Islam, their daughter Wafa Islam and Papul's sister-in-law Jesmin Prodhan. 

Papul won the Laxmipur-2 seat in the 2018 election as an independent candidate. He also launched a successful bid to bring his wife to parliament as an MP in one of the seats reserved for women