Kuwait strips 415 more of citizenship as crackdown continues: What to know
Kuwait is seeking to attract wealthy foreigners to reside in the country while escalating its crackdown on citizenships it says were obtained fraudulently.
Kuwait revoked the citizenship of at least 415 more people on Monday, including a prominent businessman. The Gulf state has stripped more than 50,000 people of their nationality in recent years in what the government says is an effort to crack down on forgery and fraud, drawing criticism from watchdogs.
What happened: Kuwait issued six decrees late Sunday stripping the individuals of their citizenship. The majority of those affected had acquired Kuwaiti citizenship through dependency, which usually means they had a parent who held the nationality. There were 415 cases specified in the decrees, though the number of those to be stripped of their nationality could be higher due to the measures covering dependents, Gulf media outlets reported.
The individuals were not named, but Gulf media reported that billionaire businessman Mahmoud Haidar was among those affected.
Haidar made his fortune in the jewelry business before expanding into real estate, financial services and other sectors. He and his family are prominent investors in Kuwait and won a lawsuit against Credit Suisse in 2017 over losses during the 2008 financial crisis, Bloomberg reported at the time.
