KUWAIT CITY, Jan 21: The Court of Cassation overturned the Court of Appeal’s ruling that had sentenced a defendant to five-year imprisonment for trafficking and using psychotropic substances. It instead acquitted him of both charges despite the testimony of the first and second defendants against him and the police investigation. Lawyer Bashar Al-Nassar argued that the appealed ruling was invalid due to flawed reasoning, a violation of the right to defense, and a breach of the law. He explained that his client was not caught in the act and was implicated solely based on the confessions of the first and second defendants, without any material evidence or serious investigation to corroborate those confessions. The investigating officer did not conduct any actual investigation regarding the third defendant and that the investigation revealed no role or connection between his client and the incident. The testimony of one defendant against another, when conveyed through the officer and unsupported by evidence, is insufficient on its own to establish guilt.

The first defendant confessed after his arrest to possessing a quantity of psychotropic substances belonging to himself and the third defendant and stated that they were being hidden on a farm owned by the second defendant. Following this, the investigating officer, guided by the first defendant, searched the farm. A search of the second defendant’s bedroom led to his arrest and the seizure of bags containing a white substance, which he admitted to possessing for personal use. The charges stated that the first and third defendants were hiding psychotropic substances in a room on the farm. Two bags containing 139,919 Captagon tablets were found inside the room. The Court of Cassation ruled that the case file lacked conclusive evidence linking the third defendant to the incident and that the charges against him were based solely on hearsay and investigations unsupported by evidence.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff