A false criminal accusation could lead to indemnification as stipulated in the Civil Law, while the Criminal Law has opened a new gate for compensation lawsuits.Fraudulent criminal cases may lead to a compensation lawsuit. Abuse of the right to sue by framing people in criminal cases and harming the innocent will not pass without a penalty. Most criminal cases falsely filed against people lead to indemnification once the accused is declared innocent by the judge handling such cases.The whole prosecution process starts in the Criminal Court. During the hearing, the accused can ask the criminal judge to grant him compensation. The judge will approve the request, but he will only do so once he is done with the criminal accusation. What makes the compensation request exceptional is that it is actually a civil defense presented to the Civil Court, but this type of case can be presented to the Criminal Court as well.Once the accused is declared innocent, the court will either grant him compensation or refer the request to the Civil Court. The civil judge will then look into it as a whole new lawsuit linked with the previous innocence judgment. Thus, the criminal judgment is considered the main evidence in the indemnification lawsuit.An answer to a question will determine if the compensation will be granted or not once the innocence judgment is announced.Will the judge grant compensation to anyone declared innocent by the Criminal Court? It depends on how the judge issued the ruling and that is explained in the judgment itself.There are two types of ruling on innocence — one type shows that the judge did not find any evidence or the proof is not enough to declare the accused guilty. The other type is when the accused is declared innocent due to suspicions on the evidence presented to the judge who cannot rely on such proof to issue a guilty verdict.Therefore, the first type clearly shows that there is no evidence at all — the situation closest to actual innocence. The second situation is that the evidence is available but it raises doubts, so the criminal judge will declare the accused innocent.In both cases, the accused is equal to the criminal judge but it is not the same when it comes to the Civil Court.Indemnification necessitates an innocence judgment such that the judge is hundred percent sure about the clues and pieces of evidence, and he did not find anything concrete to declare the accused guilty.This is then the main reason and proof for the indemnification lawsuit once it is filed due to a false claim.Email: [email protected]By Atyab Alshatti, Esq.