KUWAIT CITY, May 26: The Court of Appeals upheld the verdict of the First Instance Court, which had earlier acquitted a marketing agent of sexually assaulting an American woman.
Case files indicate the Public Prosecution had charged the accused of grabbing the woman by the shoulders and kissing her against her will.  Initial investigations also revealed that he had been harassing the woman, even if she repeatedly asked him to stop.
However, the lawyer for the accused argued in court that the case was fabricated. He called on the court to acquit his client due to lack of incriminating evidence. After weighing the pieces of evidence and arguments presented by both sides, the court ruled in favor of the accused and affirmed his innocence.

Ruling overturned: The Court of Appeals overturned the ruling of the First Instance Court, which had previously ordered a Kuwaiti man to pay KD 9,000 to his ex-wife, a compatriot, to cover her expenses.  The court also instructed the woman to return the money to her former husband.
Case files indicate the Kuwaiti man appealed the decision of the lower court on grounds that he got divorced from the woman six years ago and he paid the alimony.  He also presented a certificate from the General Sentences Enforcement Department, proving payment of the alimony, in addition to the KD 9,000.
The court ruled in favor of the Kuwaiti man and ordered his ex-wife to return KD 9,000, because she obtained it in an illegal manner.

Jail for fake degree: The Criminal Court acquitted one of the three suspects accused of forging a university certificate, while it sentenced the other two to five years imprisonment.
The Public Prosecution had earlier charged the suspects of forging a mechanical engineering degree certificate from an Indian university in 2008 in order to use it for official purposes. They also presented the certificates for evaluation at the Ministry of Higher Education.
The suspects were punished as per Articles 257 and 1/259 of the penal code.

Union head acquitted: The Criminal Court acquitted the president of Kuwait Doctors Union Dr Hussein Al-Khabaz, and the editors-in-chief of seven local newspapers, in a lawsuit filed by Kuwaiti Medical Society.
Dr Al-Khabaz praised the sentence, which he said proves that the previous press statements by the union were accurate. He added the society members had made false accusations against the founding members of the union which led the Ministry of Social Affairs to unlawfully cancel the license of the union.
Al-Khabaz criticized the continuous attempt to prevent doctors from delivering press statements to reveal the extent of corruption in the ministries.

‘Allowance for dad’: The Court of Cassation ruled that the father of a handicapped child should receive the monthly allowance from the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor, not the mother even if she has been granted custody of the child.
Attorney Fawzia Al-Sabah, who represented the father in court, argued that the father is the natural custodian of the child’s life and money. The father should look after the welfare of the child and ensure that he gets proper education, even if he lives with the mother inside the matrimonial home or after divorce, the lawyer explained.
After hearing the arguments of both sides, the court granted the father right to receive the allowance on behalf of the child.
The session was presided over by Judge Buram Ojaiz.