Citizen acquitted of fraud
Jail for joining IS
KUWAIT CITY, April 16: The Misdemeanor Court of Appeals chaired by Judge Abdul-Aziz Al-Ghaith nullified the decision of the Court of First Instance, which sentenced an expatriate to 24 months in prison with hard labor and deportation after completion of the term and acquitted him of defrauding a mentally disabled citizen.
The case file indicated the father of the plaintiff received a telephone call from a local bank official saying his son wanted to apply for KD 15,000 loan to pay KD 13,700 debt for a friend who accompanied him to the bank. The man went to the bank and managed to stop the transaction, and reported the incident to the concerned authority, claiming his son was a victim of a fraudulent expatriate.
The investigation revealed the suspect (an Egyptian taxi driver) had made the victim his client from the first day he transported and exchanged phone numbers with him. The driver later introduced the victim to the second suspect (owner of a Lebanese company) for employment as a supervisor.
The suspects denied the allegation, reiterating the plaintiff had actually collected the sum from the first suspect and promised to pay later. The first suspect claimed having a proof of the debt, indicating he had given the Kuwaiti KD 7,400 cash, KD 1,800 in telephone deals, and KD 4,500 in accumulated cost of taxi chartered to different places.
Lawyer Yousef Al-Muhayesh in their defense faulted the investigation conducted by detectives, saying they presented two contradicting reports; the first report affirming the allegation while the other one dismissed it within an interval of one day.
Jail for joining IS: The Court of Cassation overturned the verdict of the Court of Appeals which acquitted a citizen of joining a banned organization known as ‘DAESH’.
The higher court then sentenced the citizen to five years in prison with hard labor for involvement in the State Security case.
The Public Prosecution had earlier charged the citizen with performing, without the government’s permission, hostile actions against a foreign country (Syria) by joining a militia group there, where he was trained on how to fight and handle weapons.
The prosecution considered the defendant’s action a threat to Kuwait and harmful to political relations with the aforementioned country. It also accused him of participating in hostile campaigns with the banned group whose main objective is to instigate chaos in Kuwait. The group aims to disrupt prevailing rule of order so the defendant was also charged with funding the ISIL willingly.