Kuwaiti royal found guilty in case involving fake videos

A Swiss court in Geneva found Sheikh Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah, 58, a member of Kuwait's ruling family, guilty of plotting to use fake arbitration over videos involving his political rivals. 

The royal allegedly tried to frame two Kuwait politicians for a coup plot in 2013.

On Friday, Sheikh Ahmad was sentenced to 14 months in jail with an additional 15-month suspended sentence. The decision puts his career in international sports at risk. 

One of the lawyers in the case called it "the scenario of a thriller."

Who is Sheikh-Ahmad al-Fahad al-Sabah?

Sheikh Ahmad was known as a power broker and a kingmaker among Olympic officials. He stepped aside from his membership in the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 2018 due to the fraud charges.

He previously served as chief of the the oil cartel OPEC and as a government minister. The royal was also forced to resign as an executive committee member of FIFA in 2017 after US federal prosecutors implicated him in bribing Asian soccer officials.

What is the case about?

In 2013, Sheikh Ahmad gave video footage to Kuwaiti authorities that purported to show a former prime minister, Sheikh Nassar al-Mohammed al-Sabah, and a former speaker of parliament, Jassim al-Kharafi, discussing a coup plot. The two men could have faced the death penalty on treason charges.

But Kuwaiti prosecutors determined that the videos were fake, prompting Sheikh Ahmad to publicly apologize on Kuwaiti television in 2015. The royal said that, at the time of providing the videos, he believed them to be genuine.

The lawyers for the two men affected by the video filed a criminal complaint in Geneva, Switzerland in 2015. Prosecutors in Geneva alleged Sheikh Ahmad knew the videos featuring his rivals were fake when he handed them over to Kuwaiti authorities.

The charges of forgery revolve around a 2014 arbitration case in Geneva that was later presented to the High Court in London in an attempt to verify the videos. Prosecutors say Sheikh Ahmad had concocted a sham legal dispute involving backdated documents and a shell company in Delaware to instigate a staged arbitration case.

On Friday, presiding judge Delphine Gonseth said Sheikh Ahmad supported the fake arbitration and was its sole beneficiary. Although prosecutors demanded only 6 months in jail for the royal and a two-year suspended term, the judge handed down a stricter sentence of 4 months in jail with an additional 15-month suspended.

He was sentenced along with four others, one Kuwaiti aide and three lawyers. After his conviction Friday, Sheikh Ahmad vowed to appeal, proclaiming he was innocent and asserting "I know I didn't do anything."

ar/dj (AP, Reuters)