LOCALARAB TIMES, MONDAY, MARCH 25, 2019

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Panel to meet ministers over issue

Discussion on to grant citizenshipto deserving ‘bedoun’ and others

44th Islamic book fair kicks off

Knowledge, culture contribute to developing society

Negligible no. of real estate crimes of ‘fraud’ in Kuwait – Abdul Rahim

Internationalization of real estate cases

KUWAIT CITY, March 24, (KUNA): Encouraging culture and promoting knowledge contributes to the development and progress of the society and its citizens through sci-ence and reading, Minister of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs said on Saturday.

Fahad Al-Shola made the statement during his speech in the 44th Islamic book fair, which is organized by the Social Reform Association (Eslah).

The fair, which will run until March 30, contributes to cementing the basic principles to pay attention

to moderate Islamic culture, which protects youth and children from the extremist thought, Al-Shola said.

Such culture builds the mind of human being and promotes his/her culture to be an innovative person who benefi ts his/her society and

home, he noted.One of the ministry’s objectives

is to work on creating a climate of values and culture to cope up with challenges and developments, he pointed out.

Such a climate contributes to pro-

moting Sharia, intellectual and lin-guistic aspects among the members of society, he stated.

The ministry encourages all ini-tiatives and activities that boost the development of the Kuwaiti society and support the most important com-

ponent of society, namely the fam-ily, and challenges and diffi culties facing it, he explained.

Islam takes care of building fam-ily because it is the society’ basis and the school of generations, he concluded.

Crown Prince returns home

Representative of His Highness the Amir, His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sa-bah and the delegation accompanying him, returned home from Riyadh on Sat-urday after attending the final ceremony of King Abdulaziz Camel Festival.

His Highness the Crown Prince was received at the airport by National As-sembly Speaker Marzouq Al-Ghanim and His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

His Highness the Crown Prince’s del-

egation included Sheikh Faisal Saud Al-Sabah, Sheikh Jaber Duaij Al-Sabah, Sheikh Talal Khaled Al-Sabah, Sheikh Ahmad Mansour Al-Sabah, Sheikh Abdullah Salem Al-Ali Al-Sabah, Advi-sor at His Highness the Crown Prince’s Diwan Dr Humoud Al-Otaibi, President of His Highness the Crown Prince’s Di-wan Sheikh Mubarak Faisal Al-Sabah, Kuwait’s Ambassador to Saudi Arabia Sheikh Ali Khaled Al-Sabah and head of protocol at His Highness the Crown Prince’s Diwan Sheikh Mubarak Sabah Al-Salem Al-Sabah. (KUNA)

KUWAIT CITY, March 24: The Interior and Defense Committee of the National Assembly will discuss with the First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Defense Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah, and Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Lt-Gen Sheikh Khaled Al-Jar-rah, and the head of the Central System for Remedying the Status of Illegal Res-idents (CSRSIR) the issue of granting citizenship to bedoun who are deemed to be of good character and profession-als in addition to granting the Kuwaiti nationality to non-Kuwait widow whose Kuwait husband died before she declare her desire for citizenship, reports Al-Rai daily.

Parliamentary sources told the daily the fi rst item will be presented by the Minister of Defense and the head of the CSRSIR that deals with the security restrictions that are placed on a large number of bedoun in addition to issu-ing them marriage certifi cates, personal identities and driving licenses and to discuss the naturalization of the stateless who deserve it especially after the CSR-SIR studied the fi les of the stateless and recommended naturalizing some of them and to urgently address this issue fully in a period of time determined in coordina-tion with the government.

The study also focused on facilitat-

ing the study procedures for bedoun children and treating them as Kuwaitis in educational institutions, studying the increase in the number of seats assigned to them at the Kuwait University and other institutes such as the Public Au-thority for Applied Education and Train-ing and other educational, medical and other sectors that predominantly employ expatriates.

Sources stated that the second item of the meeting is discussions on the issue of granting citizenship to the widow of the Kuwaiti, who did not declare her wish before her husband’s death ex-plaining that the discussion will focus on proposals submitted by a number of deputies.

The amendment, in the second para-graph of Article 8 of Amiri Decree No. 15, of 1959 stipulates that “if the mar-riage is terminated because of the death of the husband and the foreign woman has children from her husband, and re-siding legally for a period of at least fi ve years from the date of marriage, she may be granted Kuwaiti nationality by decree based on the decision of the Minister of the Interior, even though she has not previously declared her desire to acquire this nationality before the death of her husband.

No internal organs taken from themurdered Kuwaiti citizen in EgyptKUWAIT CITY, March 24: When some of the relatives of a Kuwaiti who was killed a week ago in his apartment in one of the popular neighborhoods in Egypt, complained that some organs of the de-ceased were stolen, a senior offi cial of the Kuwait Embassy in Cairo refuted the al-legations, reports Al-Anba daily.

The offi cial said it is illogical to believe such a thing actually happened given the fact the victim was old and in his early 80s, which means most of the organs would be of no use taking in account the age factor.

The offi cial added: “We can confi rm that this is not true and because the em-bassy was following up every step until the body was repatriated to Kuwait.”

In response to a question on the re-

quest of the Kuwaiti Foreign Ministry to the Egyptian authorities to receive a Kuwaiti security delegation in Egypt and facilitate the mission and follow up the matter, the embassy offi cial said the Egyptian security authorities fully coop-erated with the Kuwaiti side, concerning various issues.

The offi cial pointed out that the Egyp-tian security authorities informed the Ku-waiti security delegation about all the pro-ceedings and investigations carried out in Egypt which required careful examination of the body since the victim did not die naturally but was killed ‘by thieves’.

The source confi rmed that the investi-gations in Giza since the beginning of the case made great efforts which culminated in the speedy arrest of the suspects.

KUNA photoHH the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah upon his return to Kuwait

from Saudi Arabia.

KUNA photoUS Deputy Assistant Secretary for Visa Services, Edward J. Ramotowski during an

interview with KUNA.

KUWAIT CITY, March 24: The head of the Office for Financial Crimes and Trade in the United States, Dr Jamal Abdul Rahim said there are no crimes of real estate fraud in Kuwait, noting that the number of complaints filed is no more than by 200 people, reports Al-Qabas daily.

“The main reason for the huge number of the cases that took place in Kuwait is the citizen himself,” Abdul Rahim said at an internation-al symposium on the internationali-zation of real estate cases.

The symposium was organized by the Independent Track Group. “We are suffering from the problem due to lack of discipline, starting with the employee who did not do his duty due to the lack of adoption of culture of accountability.

He pointed to the need to adopt-ing a culture of accountability by the citizens themselves to recover their stolen rights through recourse to the judiciary, indicating that the law on money laundering forces banks to identify the sources of customers’ money under the law ‘Know your

customer’, and prevents the banks from receiving cash money in excess of KD 3 thousand if the source is not known. Abdul Rahim said that it should be taken into account that the US Patriot Act applies outside the US borders, stressing the importance of looking at some aspects of the Patriot Act that pertain to non-American peo-ple, especially as some Kuwaiti banks

have branches abroad.He went to say the US banks

must apply strict due diligence to all foreign private banking custom-ers, international correspondent ac-counts and others and said the Act extends the “extensive jurisdiction” of the courts of the United States of America to any person who com-mits a money laundering offense

involving fi nancial transactions oc-curring in the United States.

In addition, the law extends the criminal jurisdiction of the United States courts to anyone outside jurisdiction and engaged in work involving the American currency, which is considered a crime in the United States.

He added that since the US dollar is used in most fi nancial transactions globally, and because all US dol-lar transactions must be liquidated through the dollar clearing center, this gives the United States suffi cient authority over those transactions to be able to take action against any institution that is laundering money inadvertently through the US dollar clearing system.

Dr Abdul Rahim put forward a number of proposals to avoid future land foreclosures, in light of the law of money laundering, including fi -nancial institutions, businesses and non-fi nancial professions must assess the risks of money laundering and the fi nancing of terrorism related to their work, including the development of new products and technologies.

They should also keep the risk as-sessment and information in writing in a written form and update it peri-odically and provide it to regulators on request.

KUNA photoOne of the musical sessions showcased on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the third edition of Kuwait Music Festival and Conference.