KUWAIT CITY, May 4: The Court of Cassation, chaired by Judge Mohammad Al-Rafae, obligated the Ministry of Interior to return the passport of a citizen and lift the travel ban imposed on him. Case files indicate Attorney Bassam Al-Asousi filed the lawsuit on behalf of his client who was detained in Dubai where he was interrogated for alleged involvement in a criminal case. When the citizen returned to Kuwait, he was surprised as he was informed about the order to confiscate his passport and ban him from traveling. Al-Asousi argued in court that the case was malicious, asserting his client had nothing to do with criminal case in Dubai and that he was treated unjustly. He disclosed his client needs to travel immediately as he is suffering from a number of illnesses including heart problems, stressing that banning his client from traveling under such circumstances contravene the humanitarian principle. Earlier, the First Instance Court ruled against the citizen and the Appeals Court upheld the verdict but the lawyer strongly defended his client in front of the Court of Cassation.

Duo not guilty: The Misdemeanor Court, headed by Judge Ahmad Al- Qusaimi, declared the innocence of a citizen and an expatriate accused of embezzlement and fraud. A Kuwaiti woman accused a compatriot and an expatriate of swindling her into purchasing a flat by assuring her that she can sell it later at a higher price. She said one of the accused asked her to do a bank transfer amounting to KD 55,000 and she assumed that the accused received the money. She also disclosed that she met the accused on a social website. Defense lawyer for the accused, Attorney Bushra Al-Hindal, argued in court that her clients do not know the woman and they never had an agreement with her to purchase the flat. She presented documents to support her argument to the court, which declared the accused not guilty after a thorough analysis of the evidence and arguments submitted by both sides.

Jail-term overruled: The Criminal Court presided over by Judge Abdullah Al-Othman cancelled the verdict issued earlier which sentenced a Kuwaiti citizen to five-year imprisonment for consuming heroin and other intoxicants. Instead, the court acquitted him. According to the case file, the arresting officer said he was patrolling a residential area when he saw a car, which was filled on the inside with smoke, in the parking lot of a cooperative society. He rushed over to notice that a man who was sitting in the vehicle was trying to hide something after seeing him. The officer checked it to discover it was a bag that contained a substance suspected to be a drug and drug paraphernalia. Tests revealed that the drug was heroin while the suspect’s urine test results revealed the presence of drugs. The Criminal Court had initially sentenced the suspect in absentia to five-year imprisonment and a fine of KD 5,000. However, Lawyer Mohammad Hamza Abbas faulted the verdict, stressing that the procedures followed to arrest and search his client were not legal, as he was not caught red-handed.

Indecent behavior: The Criminal Court ordered two young women to pay a fine of KD 2,000 each for appearing in a video clip titled ‘The Rabbit jumped’ in which they were seen behaving in an indecent manner. According to the case file, the two women had uploaded the video clip to a social networking website. When the video went viral, many users complained about the lack of action by Ministry of Interior over the unruly and indecent behavior of the two women, which presented a bad image for the Kuwaiti society

By Jaber Al-Hamoud Al-Seyassah Staff