Kuwaiti citizen ‘acquitted’ of forging his name, nationality; 2-year jail for blogger
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KUWAIT CITY, Feb 20: The Court of Cassation upheld the verdict issued by the Court of Appeals which acquitted a Kuwaiti citizen who was accused of forging his name and citizenship. The Court of First Instance had earlier sentenced the suspect to threeyear imprisonment but the verdict was overturned by the appellate court which acquitted the defendant. According to the case file, the name and citizenship in the work ID of the suspect, who is an employee of border security, differed from the data in his Kuwaiti civil ID. This resulted in entry of false information about the suspect in the relevant database. This was aimed for him to escape without being arrested due to travel ban issued against him for nonpayment of debts. The defense counsel Lawyer Mohammad Al-Khaldi appealed the verdict issued by the Court of First Instance, explaining that his client did not commit any forgery as he has Saudi citizenship as well as Kuwaiti citizenship. For his border employee ID, he had submitted the Saudi documents that belonged to him and not any other individual. This means there was no crime of forgery. Concerning the differences in the names mentioned in the Saudi documents and Kuwaiti documents, Lawyer Al-Khaldi said such things sometimes happen and the name might be registered differently from one employee to another such that one employee might mention the full family name while another may not. He stressed that the confiscated documents are correct and they belong to his client, adding that no other ID cards with fake information were found with his client.
Jail for blogger: The Court of Appeals upheld the verdict issued by the Court of First Instance, which sentenced the Twitter user Fuhad Al- Ajmi to two-year imprisonment with hard labor and ordered payment of KD 1,000 for suspension of the verdict. Al-Ajmi was accused of spreading former MP Musallam Al-Barrak’s infamous speech which was deemed offensive to the Amiri entity. According to the case file, the Public Prosecution had accused Al-Ajmi of spreading the speech titled “We will never allow” delivered by former MP Musallam Al-Barrak during a seminar held at Erada Square in which Al-Barrak used words deemed offensive to the entity of His Highness the Amir of Kuwait. It is worth mentioning that the Public Prosecution asked the court to impose the harshest punishment of five-year imprisonment on Al-Ajmi. A total of 70 individuals were referred to the Public Prosecution for spreading that infamous speech and they have all been charged in three different cases. Meanwhile, the Criminal Court issued an unprecedented verdict to suspend a sentence of two-year imprisonment issued against a voter from the Fourth Constituency for violating laws governing parliamentary elections. The voter was arrested after he was seen taking a picture of the ballot paper to prove he had voted for a certain candidate. Such an act is against the election law.
Texting ex-wife: The Misdemeanor Court cancelled a verdict issued by the Court of First Instance which acquitted a Kuwaiti citizen who was accused of sending insulting text messages to his former wife. The court instead fined him KD 200. The Public Prosecution had accused the suspect of mobile phone abuse, as it was proven that he had sent insulting text messages to his former wife. The Court of First Instance had acquitted him but the plaintiff, through her lawyer Eman Bloushi, appealed the verdict, insisting that the court acquitted the defendant even though substantial evidences against the defendant were available from investigations including an extract of the text messages that he had sent which was obtained from the concerned telecommunications company.
By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff
This news has been read 5831 times!
