KUWAIT: Opposition MP Riyadh Al-Adasani said yesterday that the finance ministry has referred the case of two lawmakers whose bank accounts were allegedly illegally inflated to "concerned authorities" for investigation. The lawmaker confirmed that "two cases have been sent to the concerned authorities for further legal investigation," and added that more cases must be followed and referred for investigations.

Adasani had said that he learnt that some local banks informed the finance ministry's fiscal intelligence unit that the accounts of an undisclosed number of lawmakers had been inflated and suspected of irregularities. He said the issue was investigated by the country's secret service and now the unit has referred the accounts of two lawmakers for further investigations and legal action. He said he will continue to follow up the issue until all culprits are investigated and held to account. The lawmaker however gave no names.

Adasani has in the past two weeks threatened to grill the ministers of finance and interior if the suspected case was not referred to the public prosecution for pressing charges. He said that he will continue to press for the trial of a number of lawmakers who openly said they had accepted payments from the government, citing former MPs Nabil Al-Fadhl and Abdullah Al-Tameemi.

In late 2011, the public prosecution interrogated 13 MPs over a suspected large-scale corruption case in which those lawmakers were accused of accepting millions of dinars in political bribes. But the former MPs were freed and the case was shelved over a lack legislation to prosecute the culprits.

Meanwhile, head of the legal and legislative committee MP Khaled Al-Shatti urged other panels yesterday to complete the study of draft bills cleared by his panel in order to speed up the approval of laws. He also said he expects a key legislation on the religious personal law for Shiites to be finalized during the current term. The bill was cleared by the legal committee in the last term.