MP Shahid confesses to bribing Kuwaitis for hiring workers from BD

Laxmipur lawmaker Mohammad Shahid Islam alias Kazi Papul told Kuwaiti law enforcing agencies that he had handed one million Kuwaiti dinars (about 3 million US$) in cash to the manager of a Kuwaiti company to manage the 'government contract' for bringing people from Bangladesh to Kuwait illegally.
"His detailed confession of providing financial sums to a person in-charge in one of the ministries, a civil servant in the Ministry of the Interior and one of the persons, after nine days of interrogation by the agencies," Kuwaiti influential Daily Arab Times said on Tuesday.
Investigations revealed the existence of suspicious financial transactions carried out by a network of officials with weak souls in cooperation with companies that facilitated these operations, the statement added.
"He admitted that he had handed one million Kuwaiti dinars in cash to the manager     of a company in exchange for bringing people from Bangladesh to Kuwait illegally. The company has government contracts," a senior reporter of the newspaper told a local English daily, citing official sources.
The latest of which was acknowledged in terms of providing 1.1 million dinars by cheque for a government employee and one million dinars in cash for a person in addition to bags of gifts in millions of dinars, it added.
"Former and serving Kuwaiti lawmakers were involved in the racket," Papul told during the investigation admitting that to paying large sums of money to high officials including a security official.
The Public Prosecution decided to continue the detention of the Bangladeshi MP and another of the same nationality for human trafficking and money laundering to complete the investigation with them after listening to the testimony of 12 expats brought by the accused from Bangladesh for money.
During investigation the Bangladeshi MP made confessions against a person in-charge in one of the Ministries, and said that he was attending him at the cleaning company, and asked him to send all his Kuwait employees before he would come so that no one would recognize him.
According to informed sources the MP: revealed in his confessions that the manager was insisting him to receive the cash amounts in return for his presence and signing the illegal transactions. The Bangladeshi MP asked his Kuwaiti employees to leave the premises or gave them off when bribing was taking place.
Investigations revealed the existence of suspicious financial transactions carried out by a network of officials with weak souls in cooperation with companies that facilitated these operations, the statement added.
The confessions also affected an employee of the Ministry of Interior, where the accused said that he handed him a cheque of one million and 100,000 Kuwaiti dinars. He presented to the Public Prosecution a copy of the cheque previously received by the employee who was completing the transactions for him, the Arab Times said.
Papul pleaded innocence after he was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department in Kuwait on June 6.
The lawyer, Nasser Al-Hasban, who represents the Bangladeshi MP demanded that the accused be released from any guarantee that he is a MP in his country and will not flee in light of the current conditions.
Meanwhile, the Kuwaiti lawmakers demanded extensive investigation to identify everyone involved and to bring them to book.
The Anti-Corruption Authority issued a statement announcing that it had begun an investigation to unearth the whole illegal nexus.
The Public Prosecution decided to continue Papul's detention, after listening to the testimony of 11 Bangladeshis who had bribed their way into Kuwait through Papul.
Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs and Interior Minister Anas Al-Saleh in a tweet said on Saturday that "Kuwait security is a red line, and maintaining its safety is the ultimate goal. This is what we pledged to His Highness, the Amir, His Highness the Crown Prince, and His Highness the Prime Minister and the noble Kuwaiti people."
In a statement issued on the same day, Al-Saleh said that this was one of the largest cases of human trafficking and residence for an Asian expatriate.
Combating human trafficking and illegal residence is one of the main priorities of the Ministry of Interior and the efforts made by security men made a lot of progress in terms of pursuing the suspects or in terms of reforming legislation, it said.