Oct 30 ruling in TMAS missing files case
Cop-attacker escapes punishment
Jaber Al-Hamoud
KUWAIT CITY, Oct 11: The Court of Appeals set Oct 30 for the announcement of its verdict on the TMAS Company missing files case involving 15 individuals.
This came after the Public Prosecution appealed the decision issued by the Criminal Court, requesting harsher penalties such as life imprisonment for the secretaries and 10 years imprisonment for the lawyers and their representatives.
The Criminal Court had earlier sentenced two Kuwaitis working as secretaries of sessions to 10 years in prison, dismissal from their jobs and obligated them to refund KD60,000 along with another accused – a bailiff.
The court also sentenced five lawyers and the Syrian office manager of one of the lawyers to one year in prison, in addition to deportation for the Syrian after serving the sentence. Five representatives of the lawyers – all Egyptians – were also sentenced to one year imprisonment to be followed by deportation. An Egyptian bailiff was sentenced to seven years imprisonment to be followed by deportation while one lawyer was acquitted.
The prosecution demanded for life imprisonment for the secretaries instead of 10 years imprisonment and KD500 fine for the bailiff. It also demanded for 10 years imprisonment for the lawyers instead of one year and a similar penalty for the lawyers’ representatives instead of one year imprisonment.
Verdict overruled: The Court of Appeals presided over by Chief Judge Nasser Salem Al-Heid cancelled the verdict issued by the Criminal Court which sentenced a Kuwaiti citizen to three-year imprisonment with hard labor based on allegations of attacking a police officer, the video clip of which went viral on social media. The court instead ruled out punishment for the accused citizen.
The defendant was represented by Lawyer Mohammed Al-Otaibi who explained that his client is suffering from delusional disorder “psychosis” and is a patient at the Psychological Medicine Hospital since 2012. He was referred to medical retirement from military service after examinations by three medical boards affirmed that he was no longer fit to serve in the military since he suffers from chronic mental illness.