09/01/2017
09/01/2017
KUWAIT CITY, Jan 9: The Court of Appeals overturned the verdict issued by the Court of First Instance which sentenced the ambassador of an Asian country to prison. The court instead acquitted him of embezzlement of about $600,000 from the public funds. Representing the ambassador was Lawyer Bader Al - Bader , who praised the court’s verdict, as the Court of First Instance depended on the expert’s report which is not enough because they usually repeat what is being said. He stressed that the prosecution failed to provide any substantial proofs. Lawyer Al-Bader said his client had donated the money in question as an official donation from the State of Kuwait through one of the Cambodians in charge of an Islamic center, adding that the prosecution failed to question the convicts. No penalty: The Court of Appeals presided over by Judge Hani Al-Hamdan overturned the verdict issued by the Criminal Court which sentenced a Kuwaiti citizen to fouryear imprisonment with hard labor. The court instead decided to refrain from pronouncing penalty against the citizen who was accused for possessing drugs and intoxicants. According to the case file, the Public Prosecution accused the suspect of possessing hashish and intoxicants, and driving under narcotic influence. During investigations, the suspect denied all allegations directed at him by the Public Prosecution. The defense counsel Lawyer Bushra Al-Hindal said the procedures of searching and arresting her client were illegal, stressing on the contradictions in the testimony of the incident officer after he was re-interrogated based on the lawyer’s request. Rent collector absolved: The Misdemeanor Court acquitted a rent collector who was accused of embezzling rent proceeds worth KD 45,000 for buildings owned by a businessman. The Public Prosecution had accused the man of expropriating the above mentioned amount that belonged to a businessman who had entrusted it to him based on his work contract as the rent collector at the office of the businessman. During the court session, the defense counsel Lawyer Khawlah Al-Hassawi stressed that her client had denied all charges throughout the investigations. She revealed that her client had abandoned receiving monies from the caretakers of buildings since a year and half and has only been collecting bank cheques, adding that the documents also did not contain any evidences on the collection of the real estate revenues due to which there is nothing to prove that her client took receipts of the rent amounts from the building caretakers. By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff