11/12/2023
11/12/2023
KUWAIT CITY, Dec 11: The Court of Cassation yesterday sentenced several solicitors and bailiffs to imprisonment for varying periods ranging between six months and one year, followed by their deportation after they were convicted of disclosing confidential case information. The Court of Appeals’ Misdemeanor Circuit had overturned the verdicts issued in the case of “disclosing information related to cases being discussed and pending before the courts” filed against 26 defendants including bailiffs at the Ministry of Justice, female lawyers, and solicitors. A female lawyer, a bailiff, and a solicitor were issued with a suspended sentence of three months at a bail of KD 500 each, two bailiffs were fined KD 500 and KD 1,000, and two others were acquitted.
The Public Prosecution charged the defendants from the first to the 13th in their capacity as those tasked with public service - the bailiffs of courts in the Ministry of Justice – for disclosing information related to cases being discussed and pending before the courts in which they work, despite the obligation of confidentiality and not to be circulated except with permission from the concerned court for the concerned parties, and by means legally established.
This is because they photographed some of the rulings, decisions, and documents in those cases using their mobile phone cameras, and then disclosed the information to each other, as well as to the defendants from the 14th to 26th, through their mobile phones and instant messaging programs such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Imo, Messenger. Their action would harm the interest of the entity they work for, as well as achieve the private interest of others. They intentionally misused the means of communication to commit the crime described above.