Court seeks further probe in lawyer’s worker’s insult case

KUWAIT CITY, July 29: The Court of Appeals for Misdemeanors, presided over by Judge Bader Al-Sarawi, with Judges Mohammad Al-Salal, Ahmed Al-Yassin, Muslim Al-Shuhoumi and Salman Al-Suwait as members, declared the investigation and trial procedures invalid and ordered return of the case file to the General Department of Investigations for referral to the Public Prosecution -- the competent investigative authority, reports Al-Seyassah daily.

This ruling is based on the arguments presented by Attorney Mohammad Ahmad Taleb. The case file indicates that a female lawyer is accused of insulting a Ministry of Justice employee while performing her duties, and the employee is accused of verbally abusing the lawyer in a public place. The Misdemeanor Court had earlier sentenced the lawyer to one month in prison, the implementation of which was suspended for three years upon payment of KD500 bill, while the employee was acquitted. The same court referred the two civil cases to the competent court, a decision upheld by the Court of Appeals for Misdemeanors. Taleb appealed the ruling at the Court of Cassation, stressing that the investigation procedures are invalid, because they were issued by an unauthorized entity. He explained that the incident attributed to his client is related to her legal practice in filing a lawsuit, pointing out that in such cases, only the Public Prosecution is authorized to conduct investigations. The court based its ruling on Article 11bis of the Legal Profession Law, amended by Law No. 62/1996, which states “lawyers should not be investigated for a crime related to their work, unless the investigation is done by the Public Prosecution.”