The Kuwait public prosecution on Thursday imposed a travel ban on a local businesswoman, a suspect in the trafficking case filed against Bangladeshi MP Mohammad Shahid Islam, to prevent her from escaping after she was released on bail.
The businesswoman, who is the sister of one of the Kuwaiti senior government officials, was facing charges of bribery and money laundering, according to Al-Seyassah, a Kuwaiti daily.
She owned a company that has earned government contracts exceeding several million dinars. The company’s capital is 250,000 Kuwaiti dinars.
The prosecution cross-examined her for more than an hour and half before releasing her on bail.
The Kuwait authorities arrested Shahid Islam on allegations of human trafficking, money laundering and bribing officials of the country, on June 7 and sent him to jail after interrogation.
The prosecution sought an order of the Kuwait central bank to freeze bank accounts he operates to run businesses in the Arab country.
The financial balance of the company amounts to about five million dinars, including three million dinars as the company’s capital, according to the Arab Times of Kuwait. The amount is equivalent to about 138 crore Bangladeshi taka.
The Kuwait prosecution has also started interrogating several senior government officials on charges of receiving bribes and gifts to do official works favouring the desire of the Bangladesh MP or to please other officials for maintaining his interests.
The Kuwaiti authorities launched the investigations after getting information that Shahid Islam brought into thousands of workers from Bangladesh and took huge sums of money from them as ‘service charges’.
