3 Kuwait officials arrested over civil aviation losses

Three Kuwaiti officials were arrested after the Minister of State for Services Affairs, Mubarak Al-Haris, held them responsible for losses in the country’s civil aviation industry.

According to the local newspaper Al-Qabas yesterday, a committee headed by the Fatwa and Legislative Department found that “job inaction” led to the loss of millions of dinars.

An official source revealed to the newspaper that the suspension of the employees came as a result of the loss of a judicial ruling of 8.5 million Kuwaiti dinars ($25 million) by the state civil aviation, and the suspicions of their failure to provide the Fatwa Administration with the documents of the case before the ruling was issued.

Xinhua reported that it is estimated that the industry will suffer losses of $1.6 billion due to the impact of the coronavirus lockdown. On 13 March, Kuwait suspended all commercial flights as part of efforts to curb the rise in infections. The full lockdown came to an end at the end of last month and a three-week partial curfew was put in its place before a gradual return to normal life.

READ: Kuwait mulls increasing expat fees by 150%