KUWAIT CITY, March 3: The Court of Appeals has commuted the life sentence imposed by the First Instance Court on a Kuwaiti man for impersonating police, kidnapping and raping Asian women to six months imprisonment.
Court files indicate the accused accompanied the victims to their apartments and then he took them to another place under the pretense that they owed him money. However, when they reached the place, the accused raped them and took their mobile phones.
Lawyer for the accused, Attorney Zaid Al-Khabbaz, argued in court that his client is innocent. He backed his argument with the marriage certificate of his client and the first victim who accused the defendant of copulating with her against her will.
Al-Khabbaz asked the court to acquit his client due to lack of incriminating evidence and called for mistrial on grounds of erroneous implementation of the law, in addition to the contradictions between the alleged victims’ testimonies and the physical (technical) evidence.

Court to hear appeal today: The Court of Appeals, presided by Judge Saleh Al-Murshed, will look Sunday into the appeal of Orans Al-Rasheedi in State Security case number 5/2011, in which he was charged with insulting the Amir’s position and his rights.
The Public Prosecution had charged him with spreading false information on the internal affairs of the country as seen in the video clips he uploaded on YouTube. He allegedly declared the Kuwaiti Constitution is corrupt and the laws do not protect the rights of the nation and its citizens.
It has been reported the Court of First Instance had previously sentenced Al-Rasheedi to 10 years in prison with hard labor.

Probe restarts in Kuwaiti’s killing: The Public Prosecution has commenced investigations into the accident in which a Kuwaiti youth Ahmad Assad was crushed to death by a Qatari national in Julia’a, reports Al-Watan Arabic daily.
The prime witness in the case had reported the incident at the nearest checkpoint and also at Umm Al-Haiman Police Station.
The suspect denied killing the victim, saying he doesn’t know who ran over the youth. He admitted that he engaged in a fight with the victim but said his escape to the checkpoint was uppermost in his mind at that point. However, the witness countered the claim, saying the Qatari actually crushed his friend before fleeing to the checkpoint.
An official source said CID’s comprehensive report and the autopsy results are not available yet to ascertain whether the victim was drunk and whether or not it was the suspect’s car that hit the victim. He said there were several accounts of the incident, adding that the suspect earlier verbally confessed to running over the victim, but later changed his statement and denied the crime.
The Qatari said he was trying to call his friends to inform them of the location of the camp when some Kuwaiti youths drove towards him and threw water on him, after which they assaulted him and forced him to flee to the checkpoint.

Bedouns demo bid foiled: Head of Jahra Security Directorate Major General Ibrahim Al-Tarrah referred three Bedouns to the Criminal Investigations Department for inciting others to stage a demonstration in Taima, reports Al-Anba daily.
Security was tightened in the area to forestall breakdown of law and order and sources say officers were able to gather information about those calling for demonstrations.