344 lose Kuwait citizenship claim over 'fake son' revelation

Authorities in Kuwait have withdrawn the citizenship of a man who was found not to be the biological son of the person listed as his father on a citizenship file, following an investigation involving DNA testing and official Gulf records. The decision also affected 344 people, including those registered under his citizenship file

The case is part of a wider review of citizenship files by Kuwait’s Nationality Investigation Department and the Supreme Committee for Citizenship Investigation.

The original citizenship file listed 10 children linked to four wives, while two were registered without a recorded mother. Previous investigations established that six of the 10 were biological children of the original file holder, while two others were found not to be related.

Citizenship and associated benefits were subsequently withdrawn from 232 people who had obtained their status through the disputed files.

The Nationality Investigation Department of Kuwait continued reviewing the remaining two cases involving individuals registered as sons without a recorded mother.

One file remains under investigation, while the other became the focus of the latest Supreme Committee for Citizenship Investigation review.

Investigators uncovered a major clue after obtaining the person’s Gulf identity records. The names of his children listed in the file were found to match those recorded in the Gulf documents, indicating that the same family details existed under two separate records.

Authorities also found that one of his sons had applied to renounce his Gulf citizenship in 2009, providing another indication of the family’s connection to Gulf identity records.

As the person under investigation was deceased, investigators could not carry out a DNA test directly between him and the original file holder. Instead, samples were taken from his children, including the son who had previously sought to renounce his Gulf citizenship.

The samples were compared with six people regarded as the biological children of the original file holder and therefore presumed to be the deceased man’s brothers.

The DNA results delivered a decisive conclusion, showing that the six individuals were not biological uncles of the children, disproving the claimed brotherhood between the deceased person and the original file holder.

The findings were supported by multiple pieces of evidence, including: Gulf documents identifying the person and his family records, matching names between Kuwaiti and Gulf files, the son’s previous renunciation of Gulf citizenship, and the DNA test results disproving the family relationship.

Following the investigation, the Supreme Committee for Citizenship Investigation decided to withdraw citizenship of Kuwait from the person found to have been incorrectly registered as the son of the original file holder, along with all individuals who obtained citizenship through his file as dependents.

The decision affected 344 people, including those registered under his citizenship file, while authorities continue reviewing the remaining unresolved case linked to the original file.