"Criminal Affairs: Expatriate sentenced to 10 years and deported from the country"

The Criminal Court rejected the argument that the war and regional circumstances justified the absence of a defendant who is a fugitive abroad and has been sentenced in absentia in a case involving real estate fraud and money laundering. The court affirmed that the hearings for the defendant’s opposition began prior to the outbreak of those events, and that it had previously paved the way for his return to Kuwait by suspending the execution of the in absentia sentence and lifting the security restrictions imposed on him, yet he failed to appear before it.

In the reasoning behind its ruling, the court stated that the defendant’s lawyer had requested, during the opposition hearings, the suspension of the sentence’s execution, permission for his client to return to the country, and the lifting of security restrictions. The court complied with these requests and granted the defendant ample time to appear, but he failed to attend all opposition hearings up to the date the court reserved its judgment. The court concluded by applying Article 191 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Courts, ruling that the opposition be considered null and void.

In October 2022, the court had issued an in absentia sentence against the defendant, ordering his imprisonment for ten years with hard labor, a fine of three million dinars, and his deportation from the country after serving his sentence, in a case involving real estate fraud and money laundering. The defendant was accused of misappropriating approximately 4.54 million dinars from victims by selling residential units and villas that were found to have been constructed in violation of permits and on land over which the defendants had no right of disposal.