KUWAIT CITY, 20 August — Police in Kuwait arrested on Saturday a fugitive who entered the emirate last week. He arrived in Kuwait on Sunday from Pakistan via Doha carrying a fake Saudi passport bearing the name of Essam Muhammad Suleiman Al-Masaary.

The Interior Ministry said the man, whose actual name is Majed Tarad Kanaan Al-Shammary, escaped from the airport hotel after he was originally apprehended.

An immigration officer suspected that the man’s passport was a forgery and asked him to wait at the hotel until authorities had checked out the document. But the man evaded security and escaped from a window overlooking the hotel’s swimming pool.

Informed sources told Arab News on condition of anonymity that the alleged fugitive is a Saudi national, but they did not provide further details.

However, security sources here identified Shammary as a stateless Arab linked to the group of Arabs who fought in Afghanistan. He is believed to have lived for a period of time in Afghanistan as a member of the so-called Arab Afghans, a group of Mujahideen who fought against the Soviets and alongside the ruling Taleban.

“The fugitive has now been re-arrested, along with three other individuals he was staying with,” the ministry said in a statement carried by the KUNA news agency.

Police arrested Shammary and the three others after they raided the home of his cousin in the rural town of Jahra, 40 kilometers west of Kuwait City.

The emirate had launched a nationwide manhunt for Shammary, who police described as “dangerous.” Al-Qabas newspaper said police had raided two homes on Wednesday night in the south of the emirate where Shammary was believed to be hiding, but he managed to escape on both occasions.

Meanwhile, Suleiman Al-Masaary, brother of Essam Al-Masaary, whose passport was used by the alleged fugitive, told Al-Watan Arabic newspaper that Essam has been missing for the last 27 days. “The passport department said he had gone to Bahrain on May 23, but he was in Riyadh on that day,” he told Al-Watan daily.

Al-Masaary said the fugitive may have stolen his brother’s passport. “I am sure Essam is in the Kingdom. But we haven’t heard anything about him for the past month. We don’t know whether he’s dead or alive.”

Al-Massary scoffed at reports that Essam is now in Chechnya. “How can he go there without a passport?” he asked.

He added that Essam had told his family that he had informed the Suwaidi police that he had lost his passport. However, the police say nobody has informed them of any such thing.