Ruling in Za’atari murder case set for June 9: court

KUWAIT CITY, April 16: The Court of Appeal has set the session of June 9 to rule on the case of the murder of Kuwaiti citizen Abdulaziz Al-Za’atari.

Earlier, the Criminal Court had sentenced a ruling family member to death after he was convicted of killing the victim.

According to the case files, on the evening of April 10 last year, Mubarak Al-Kabeer Governorate witnessed a horrific crime when the young citizen Abdulaziz Al-Za’atari was shot 12 times by an unknown assailant in front of his house. The assailant was wearing a protective helmet, and he fled from the scene after killing the victim.

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Kuwaiti duo acquitted: The Court of Cassation acquitted two Kuwaiti citizens who were accused of bank fraud, making false statements, and seizing approximately two million dinars from a Kuwaiti citizen. The court issued such a ruling after dismissing video recordings as evidence because they were taken without permission from the Public Prosecution.

Representing the two citizens was Lawyer Dr. Fawaz Khaled Al-Khatib, who maintained the innocence of the accused and demanded the dismissal of the indictment due to its violation of article 130 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, of which the recordings were obtained illegally and without permission from the Public Prosecution, something which render them invalid.

The court ended up invalidating the evidence derived from the video recordings, despite the matching of the features and personal characteristics in the video and the matching of the voice according to the forensic evidence report, basing its invalidation on the fact that it was done without the permission of the Public Prosecution and without the knowledge or consent of the accused. It considered it the result of illegal procedures that invalidate all evidence derived from it.

The court also concluded that the elements of the crimes leveled against the defendants were absent due to lack of proof.

It hence ruled that the defendants be acquitted and the civil lawsuit be referred, which was upheld on appeal.

The Court of Cassation partially upheld the ruling, upholding the acquittal of the two defendants, eliminating the part of referring the civil lawsuit to the competent judiciary, and ruling again by rejecting the civil lawsuit due to the absence of the wrongful act according to what was established by the acquittal of the defendants due to lack of proof.