KUWAIT: The special court for ministers on Tuesday sentenced former interior and defense minister Sheikh Talal Al-Khaled Al-Sabah to 14 years in jail after convicting him of misappropriation of public funds. The court convicted the former minister of embezzling KD 9.5 million from the ministry of defense and KD 500,000 from the interior ministry. The court asked the former minister to return KD 10 million to the two ministries and fined him KD 20 million.

Sheikh Talal was appointed to the Cabinet for the first time as defense minister in December 2021 and continued until January 2024. He was also given the interior portfolio during that period either separately or together with the defense post. The ruling can be appealed only once to the court of cassation unlike normal cases, which can be appealed twice to the courts of appeals and cassation. In recent years, Kuwaiti courts have jailed several ministers and senior officials over corruption cases and ordered them to repay embezzled funds, and on top imposed hefty fines on them.