KUWAIT CITY, June 27:  Criminal court sentenced a lawyer and his expat client to 5 years in prison with hard labour, and also banned the lawyer from practicing law for 10 years on charges of bribery and attempting to smuggle his client through Kuwait International Airport.

The Lawyer was arrested by detectives when he tried to smuggle an Arab expat as he offered a bribe to an immigration department employee working at the airport at departures.  The passport clerk had informed her officials at the airport that a lawyer offered her a large sum of money in exchange for stamping his Arab clients passport to smuggle out of Kuwait as he was wanted in by several security authorities and several arrest warrants were issued against him.

The Criminal Investigation Department and Financial Crime Department was alerted of this incident, the employee was asked to agree to the lawyer and get details of the expat who wanted to flee the country.

The detectives at the airport arrested the lawyer when he handed the agreed amount of cash to the passport officer in exchange for an exit stamp. Several cases were registered against the lawyer such as bribing a public employee, helping the accused to escape, and illegally attempting to leave the country.