Court quashes life sentence; ‘Drug peddler’ acquitted

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KUWAIT CITY, Oct 8: The Court of Appeals presided over by Justice Abdullah Al-Othman overturned the verdict of the lower court and acquitted an Egyptian who had been sentenced to life in prison. Case papers show the defendant was charged with trafficking in narcotics – hashish and Tramadol pills. Case papers also indicate an officer from the General Department of Criminal Investigation acting on a tip-off put the suspect under surveillance and armed with a search and arrest warrant issued by the Public Prosecution caught the man redhanded and seized the contraband from his house. The defence attorney In’am Haidar told the court the arrest procedure was not in line with the laid down procedures because her client was arrested before getting a warrant from the Prosecution. She also said her client is innocent and cited lack of evidence.

Terror case delayed: The Criminal Court presided over by Justice Mohammad Ja’afar suspended until Oct 12 the lawsuit filed against six defendants- two Kuwaitis, two Syrians, a Saudi national and an Egyptian, in connection with the donations made by some tribes in Kuwait that went to the Islamic State without their knowledge. According to the case file, more than KD 400,000 was transferred from Kuwait to Turkey via UAE to the members of ISIS in Syria. All defendants were charged for collecting donations with intent to finance terrorism.

The first defendant was accused of committing hostile act against a friendly country to jeopardize Kuwait’s relations with them, and the second defendant was charged for training members of the group based on his knowledge of using weapons to perpetrate atrocious acts in support of ISIS. Investigations pointed to correspondences and transfer of funds via some Asian countries after closely monitoring and tracking the phone calls of the brother of one of the defendants, which indicated over KD 400,000, was collected from three tribes in Kuwait through donation campaigns and transferred to the terrorist group without the tribe’s knowledge.

Appeal adjourned: The Misdemeanor Court of Appeals adjourned to Oct 19 the appeal filed by 15 government officials against the decision of the court that sentenced them to two years in prison with hard labor and immediate execution plus KD 20,000 fine per person on the power emergency case of 2007. The court ordered the release of all defendants from duty. The defendants worked for the Ministry of Electricity and Water and some of them are still employed in the ministry.

The court ordered KD 1,000 fine per person for the suspension of execution, and acquitted former undersecretary at the State Audit Bureau Abdul Aziz Al-Roomi of charges leveled against him in connection with the case and. Meanwhile, comptroller at the Audit Bureau Ihsan Abdullah said the defendants caused damages and wastage of funds and jeopardized the interests of their work place through errors made in signing the agreement, negotiation and studying of offers related to the ministry’s emergency plan

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