Court acquits police officers accused of ‘beating’ Kuwaiti

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KUWAIT CITY, July 4: The Misdemeanor Court acquitted three police officers who were accused of insulting and beating a citizen when issuing a traffic citation against him. The court instead ordered the citizen to pay a fine of KD 500 for offending and attacking securitymen while they were performing their duty. According to the case file, a traffic officer was on routine patrol when he spotted the citizen driving his vehicle recklessly.

The officer stopped the motorist for issuing a citation over the traffic violation. However, the motorist, during discussions with the officer, punched the officer on his face when the latter issued the traffic citation.

The officer immediately called for reinforcement. The officer of the first reinforcement patrol attempted to calm the raging citizen when he arrived at the scene. When the second reinforcement team of two police officers came by, the citizen pulled out a knife from his pocket and tried to attack the arresting officer. He was stopped by the other officers but one of the officers was unfortunately injured in the process.

A medical report was later obtained which confirmed the injury. The officers managed to control the citizen and they took him to police station where he was detained for investigations. The citizen then lodged a complaint against the officers, accusing them of offending him and beating him during the arrest. The officers were referred to court. The defense counsel Lawyer Zayed Al-Khabbaz who represented the officers insisted that the statements of the plaintiff were contradicting and not in line with the reality of the incident as per the incident report.

Man absolved: The Court of Appeals has nullified the verdict of First Instance Court that sentenced a Kuwaiti man to one year in prison with hard labor on the accusation of falsifying KD 4,740 cheque (the value of perfume and incense sales). The appellate court thereby acquitted the suspect and cleared him of all charges.

Earlier, the Public Prosecution Department accused the suspect of falsifying an official document to deceive people by signing a cheque without authorization from the company owner. The man, an ex-convict who just completed a five-year prison term for theft, flawlessly signed the cheque with bad intention and made it valid for withdrawal at a local bank in favor of a commercial company, said the prosecution officer. In his defense, Lawyer Esmat Al-Kharboutli argued the law was applied in error due to misleading information and insufficient circumstantial evidence. She affirmed her client was wrongly accused since he didn’t benefit from it. She urged the court to strike out the case to declare her client innocent.

Case adjourned: The Criminal Court has adjourned to October 3 the hearing of the testimonies of witnesses in the case filed against former MPs Musallam Al-Barrak, Mubarak Al-Walaan and Salem Al-Namlan, and activist Abbas Al- Sha’abi who are accused of offending the king of Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. The Public Prosecution had charged them with the spread of false news concerning the internal situation of the country with the aim of harming the national welfare of the country. It accused Musallam Al-Barrak of falsely claiming during an interview in a French satellite TV channel that there are about 3,500 military officers from Jordan in the country. All suspects were also accused of participating in an unlicensed gathering and disobeying police orders to disperse. All the suspects had denied the charges leveled against them.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff

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