Deceased Kuwaiti Emir’s Controversial Son Dies at 72

Barely three months after his 91-year-old father, the Emir of Kuwait, died, Sheikh Nasser Al-Sabah, who was for a time considered the front-runner to succeed the esteemed leader, died on Sunday. Sheikh Nasser, 72, had filled a string of prominent positions in the oil-rich state, including defense minister and deputy prime minister, and was highly regarded as an influential and ambitious economic reformer, as well as a revolutionary fighter of government corruption. His insistence on diversifying Kuwait’s reliance on oil, and his demands for investigating alleged embezzlement of hundreds of millions of dollars by top officials, gained him a mass public following, but also concerned his father’s advisers, who eventually managed to secure the appointment of the late Emir’s brother as new leader. While no official cause of death was reported, Sheikh Nasser had a lung tumor removed in 2018. In the nation’s elections two weeks ago, anti-corruption opposition candidates won close to half of the parliament’s seats.