Prominent Businessman Among Hundreds Losing Kuwaiti Citizenship
Kuwait has issued six decrees revoking or withdrawing citizenship from 415 people, including prominent businessman Mahmoud Haji Haider Abdullah.
ERBIL (Kurdistan24) - Kuwait has ordered the revocation or withdrawal of citizenship from 415 people under six decrees issued by the country's emir, with a prominent billionaire businessman among those affected.
The six decrees were published in the Sunday, Oct. 4, edition of Kuwait Al-Youm, the Kuwaiti government's official gazette.
According to the decrees, the cases concern people who had obtained Kuwaiti citizenship rights through family relationships or marriage.
The measures divide the 415 cases into six groups.
The first decree withdraws citizenship from six people, while the second, by far the largest, applies to 286.
A third decree covers 14 women, followed by a fourth affecting 25 people, a fifth covering 41 and a sixth applying to 43.
Together, the six measures account for all 415 people named in the latest citizenship decisions.
The decrees also assign responsibility for implementing the decisions to Kuwait's First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior.
Once the implementation process is completed, the results are expected to be published again in the government's official gazette.
The identities of all those affected have not been publicly disclosed in the available material.
Those included are reported to come from different professional and social backgrounds, including athletes, specialists and people holding various academic qualifications.
Among the most prominent names is businessman Mahmoud Haji Haider Abdullah, born in 1946 and described as one of Kuwait's billionaires.
According to the information accompanying the citizenship decision, his Kuwaiti nationality is being revoked because he had previously held Iranian citizenship.
The measure is also reported to extend to members of his family whose citizenship status was connected to his.
Abdullah is currently chairman of the board of Zumurrud Holding Company, according to the available information.
His career began at the British Bank in Kuwait before he later worked at Kuwait's ministries of electricity and water.
He subsequently worked at the Bank of Kuwait and the Middle East before expanding into private investment.
Over time, he became a prominent figure in Kuwait's real-estate sector and acquired stakes in a number of Kuwaiti banks.
His inclusion among those affected gives the latest decrees particular public prominence, although most of the 415 individuals have not been identified in the information currently available.
The citizenship decisions are being implemented through formal decrees rather than administrative announcements alone.
Publication in Kuwait Al-Youm places the measures within the country's official legal process, while the Interior Ministry has been tasked with carrying out the resulting changes to citizenship status.
The decrees distinguish between separate groups of affected individuals but the decrees do not provide detailed individual explanations for each of the 415 cases.
It also does not specify the professions, backgrounds or circumstances of most of those affected beyond saying that the group includes athletes, professionals and people with academic qualifications.
For that reason, the broader reasons behind the individual decisions cannot be determined from the available information alone.
What is clear from the six published decrees is the scale of the latest action: 415 citizenship cases are being withdrawn or revoked, with the Interior Ministry responsible for putting the decisions into effect.
Further information is expected to emerge when the implementation results are formally published in Kuwait's official gazette.