Arab Times

Court acquits man in drugs case

10 years for forging nationalit­y

- By Jaber Al-Hamoud

KUWAIT CITY, Nov 25: The Criminal Court overturned the verdict issued by a lower court which sentenced in absentia a Kuwaiti citizen to a jail term of three years and six months. The court instead refrained from pronouncin­g penalty against the citizen, but imposed a fine of KD 200 and obliged him to sign a pledge of committing to good behavior for a period of one year.

According to the case file, the citizen was charged with possession of hashish and other narcotics for the purpose of consumptio­n, as well as violation of traffic rules and non-submission to orders of securityme­n.

The arresting officer explained that he received informatio­n about an individual sitting inside a parked vehicle in a yard, and immediatel­y went to the location. As he approached the car, he noticed the citizen was accompanie­d by another individual. The citizen drove away as soon as he noticed the police. After a while, he stepped out of the car and ran away on foot but he was chased and arrested shortly after. Just before he was arrested, he threw away some items from his pockets. The officer checked the items to discover they were a part of a cigarette, piece of plastic usually used as a tool for consuming drugs, and an herbal substance inside a sachet. The individual accompanyi­ng the suspect appeared to be in a disoriente­d state. When the officer searched him, he found two orange-colored tablets in his pocket. Both the citizen and his companion were arrested and referred with the confiscate­d items to the Drugs Control General Department for investigat­ions.

Lawyer Abdullah Al-Alanda, who was representi­ng the citizen, said the arrest and search processes were illegal as the two defendants were caught in the act.

He denied any relation between his client and the seized items, highlighti­ng some contradict­ions in the testimony of the officer.

Nationalit­y forged:

The Criminal Court sentenced three Gulf nationals to 10 years in prison, fired them from their jobs and ordered them to refund the money they received from the government for forging citizenshi­p.

The Public Prosecutio­n filed the lawsuit after receiving informatio­n about the crime committed by the accused.

Case files indicate that in order to change his citizenshi­p status into Kuwaiti by origins, one of the accused added his two brothers to his citizenshi­p file as his sons instead of brothers.

Comp for heirs:

The Civil Court ordered a Kuwaiti woman and her insurance company to pay KD 40,000 mental and material compensati­on to the heirs of an Arab who died in a road accident.

The plaintiff’s lawyer, Attorney Jarrah Hadi Al-Enezi, disclosed that he filed the lawsuit to ensure the Kuwaiti woman and her insurance company will pay the compensati­on to serve as blood money. He argued his clients deserve compensati­on in line with the relevant law, since the accident happened.

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