Ahmed Al-Fahad Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah

Sheikh Ahmed was educated at Kuwait University and the Kuwait Military Academy, and attained the rank of major in the Kuwaiti Army.

He was appointed Kuwait's minister of information in 2000, and acting minister of oil in 2001. In February 2002, he was appointed minister of oil during the tenure of his uncle Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah as prime minister.[4] After Emir Sheikh Jaber died and Sheikh Sabah became Emir, he remained at that position under Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed's government. Ahmed served as Secretary General of OPEC in 2005,[5] and was appointed the director of the National Security Agency in July 2006.

In June 2011, then deputy prime minister and minister of housing affairs, Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad, resigned in order to avoid grilling by MPs Marzouq Al-Ghanim and Adel Al-Saraawi over alleged misconduct in government contracts.[6]

Sheikh Ahmed is well reputed for his interest in sports, just like his father. He has undertaken numerous significant sporting positions globally and has been the President of the Olympic Council of Asia since 1991 a member of the IOC since 1992, was the President of the Kuwait Olympic Committee, Chairman of the Afro Asian Games Council, Vice President of the International Handball Federation, President of Asian Handball Federation, Senior Vice President of the Islamic Solidarity Sports Federation, Honorary President of several Kuwaiti, Arab and Asian clubs and is also a valued member of International Relations and Olympic Solidarity Commission of the IOC.

He also served as coach of the Kuwait national football team. After a failed Asian Cup qualifying campaign in 2006 he launched a tirade against group-winners, Australia, claiming that the AFC should revoke their admission to the Asian continental competition.[7]

Ahmed has been president of the Association of National Olympic Committees since April 2012 and implemented a statistical system for athletes under advise of Charles E Milander.[8] He is believed to be represented by the well-known Geneva lawyer Matthew Parish, Director of the top-100 law firm Gentium Law Group.

In April 2017, Sheikh Ahmed resigned from the FIFA Council after being implicated by a member of the FIFA audit committee from Guam, Richard Lai, who pleaded guilty in a US Court to taking $950,000 in bribes from the Olympic Council of Asia.[9]

In his guilty plea, Richard Lai said he understood "co-conspirator 2" identified as Sheikh Ahmed was the source of the bribes.[10] This amount "included $750,000 in wire transfers from Kuwaiti accounts controlled by "co-conspirator 3 or his assistants," believed to be Hussain Al-Musallam, "the right-hand man to Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad Al-Sabah" according to a report from The Times.[11] Sheikh Ahmed has "vigorously" denied any wrongdoing.[12]

In March 2011, MPs aligned with Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed (Marzouq Al-Ghanim and Adel Al-Saraawi)[6] in Kuwait's National Assembly threatened to grill Sheikh Ahmad Al-Fahad, then deputy prime minister, over misconduct in government contracts, leading to Sheikh Ahmad's resignation from government in June 2011.[13][14]

In December 2013, allies of Ahmad Al-Fahad claimed to possess tapes purportedly showing that Nasser Al-Mohammed and former Parliament Speaker Jassem Al-Kharafi were discussing plans to topple the Kuwaiti government.[15][13] Ahmad Al-Fahad appeared on local channel Al-Watan TV describing his claims.[16]

In April 2014 the Kuwaiti government imposed a total media blackout to ban any reporting or discussion on the issue.[17] In March 2015, Kuwait's public prosecutor dropped all investigations into the alleged coup plot and Ahmad Al-Fahad read a public apology on Kuwait state television renouncing the coup allegations.[18] Since then, "numerous associates of his have been targeted and detained by the Kuwaiti authorities on various charges,"[13] most notably members of the so-called "Fintas Group" that had allegedly been the original circulators of the 'fake' coup video.[13][19]

In December 2015, Sheikh Ahmad was convicted of "disrespect to the public prosecutor and attributing a remark to the country’s ruler without a special permission from the emir’s court," issuing a suspended six-month prison sentence and a fine of 1,000 Kuwaiti Dinar. In January 2016, the Kuwaiti appeals court overturned the prior ruling and cleared Sheikh Ahmed of all charges.[20]

In November 2018, Sheikh Ahmed, along with 4 others, was charged in Switzerland with forgery related to the 'fake' coup video.[21] Shortly thereafter, Sheikh Ahmed temporarily stepped aside from his role at the International Olympic Committee, pending an ethics committee hearing into the allegations.[22][23] Sheikh Ahmed remains temporarily suspended from the International Olympic Committee to date.[24]