The court in Geneva handed down a 30-month sentence, half of which is to be served in jail.
The 58-year-old Sheikh, a former energy minister and prominent member of the ruling family in Kuwait, denied all charges in the trial over whether he used a bogus Kuwaiti coup plot to gain advantage over political rivals. He has said he will appeal Friday’s court verdict.
Sheikh Ahmad temporarily resigned his membership of the International Olympics Committee (IOC) after Geneva’s public prosecutor filed charges against him and four others. But in March 2019 he was re-elected as president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), despite the case in Switzerland.
According to the charges, Sheikh Ahmad is accused of orchestrating an intricate scheme using falsified video recordings to prove that the former Prime Minister of Kuwait and the Speaker of Parliament were preparing a coup d’état and had stolen public funds.
The Kuwaiti allegedly gave broadcast rights of the videos to a shell company which eventually filed a lawsuit claiming the videos were fake. The aim of the scheme was to obtain a ruling by a Swiss judge on the authenticity of the video. The favourable ruling was then presented as evidence in Kuwait that the video was genuine.
The criminal fraud case was launched in Switzerland as one of the sheikh’s co-defendants was, at the time of the alleged coup plot, a Geneva-based lawyer who acted for Sheikh Ahmad. The sheikh is one of five defendants in the trial, which opened on August 30.
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Sheikh Ahmad reelected to Olympics body despite Swiss probe
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He has been reelected as president of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA), despite an arbitration charge pending against him in Switzerland.
Young undocumented migrants gain easier access to vocational training
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Rejected asylum-seekers and young undocumented migrants in Switzerland will have easier access to basic vocational training from June 1.
Migration: Swiss government wants to shorten reunification period for families
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2023 was a record year for the Rhaetian Railway in several respects. Never before has the narrow-gauge railway in Graubünden, eastern Switzerland, transported so many passengers and cars.
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The main concerns of business leaders in Switzerland are geopolitical uncertainty and the important trading partners Germany and China.
Record organ donation in Switzerland despite high rejection rates
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More organ donations were recorded in Switzerland in 2023 than ever before. This was despite a high rejection rate of 58% by surviving relatives.
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Seven years after the death of record-breaking Swiss mountain climber Ueli Steck, his estate is going to the Alpine Museum of Switzerland in Bern.
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IOC inaugurates new headquarters in Lausanne
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The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has inaugurated its new CHF145-million ($147 million) headquarters in the Swiss city of Lausanne.
Kuwaiti ex-minister resigns from IOC after false arbitration charge
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Sheikh Ahmed al-Fahd Al-Sabah, has “temporarily” suspended his activities as a member of the International Olympic Committee (IOC).
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