‘Acquittal’ upheld against 3 in drugs case
Court nullifies decision of PAHA panel over disability
By Jaber
Al-Hamoud
KUWAIT CITY, May 10: The Court of Appeals upheld the verdict issued by the Court of First Instance which acquitted three Kuwaiti citizens who were accused of possessing drugs and driving a car under narcotic influence.
According to the case file, a police officer was on his routine duty in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh area when he suspected a car with three occupants and ordered the driver to pull over. He checked the documents of the driver to discover he is a Kuwaiti citizen and his license was expired.
Sensing his disoriented state, the officer checked him to find drugs. He also checked the other two passengers to discover they were also in possession of drugs. The driver and one of the passengers were arrested but the other passenger managed to escape. The two suspects were referred to the concerned authorities with the confiscated drugs.
The defense counsel of the first suspect, Lawyer Dalal Al-Mutairi, said the account of the police officer included contradictions, requesting the court to summon him for questioning.
The court then summoned him and also figured out the contradictions in his account.
Lawyer Al-Mutairi insisted that the search-and-arrest procedures conducted on her client were not legal because he was not caught red-handed, requesting the court to acquit her client.
The court responded to her request and acquitted her client as well as the other two defendants.
Sentence commuted:
The Misdemeanor Court commuted the prison sentence imposed on a person accused of insulting a female employee at the Public Authority for Civil Information (PACI) from three years to one week.
The court ordered suspension of enforcement of the three years imprisonment sentence, asked the defendant to sign a pledge of good conduct, allowed the latter to post bail of KD 300 and referred the lawsuit to the relevant civil court.
The PACI employee and her lawyer, Attorney Haya Al-Dousari, disclosed the accused shouted at the employee, uttering humiliating words saying the plaintiff does not understand and does not know her job.
This happened after the employee issued a certificate to the defendant according to his request but he later found out the certificate was not needed. The supervisor said she rushed to the area where the loud voice was coming from and found the employee weeping and the defendant shouting asking them to dismiss the employee and replace her with someone who understands her job well. He also threatened to submit a complaint claiming that he knows the director.
Decision nullified:
The Administrative Court has nullified decision of the Disability Diagnosis Medical Committee at the Public Authority for Handicapped Affairs, which declared a child as having minor permanent sight disability, so the court now established the child as having average permanent eyesight disability with associated effects.
Details of a lawsuit filed by the lawyer of the disabled child, Attorney Ali Al-Ali, revealed the child went through left eye transplant surgery that led to the disability. He objected to decision of the authority which classified the disability as minor, saying it violated law number 49/1996 and Ministry of Social Affairs and Labor decision number 45/1997. The law and decision are relevant to the conclusion of the Disability Diagnosis Medical Committee formed by the Higher Council for Handicapped Affairs which decided that the child was born with permanent average eyesight disability.
The court categorized the case under law number 49/1996 which stipulates necessary care for people with less than 50 percent permanent disability.
Al-Ali disclosed Article One of law number 8/2010 concerning rights of people with disability stipulates that everybody who suffers partial or complete disabilities which affect physical, mental or sensory functions could impede daily activities in the society alongside his peers.