Few days after the United Nations issued its annual report about fighting human trafficking in the world and called upon Kuwait to toughen the investigations concerning such crimes and convict the criminal, the Criminal Court sentenced a Kuwaiti woman lawyer and others to five-year imprisonment over a related case.

The defendants had deceived expatriate laborers and took advantage of their weakness in order to hire them, not pay their salaries, and mistreat and humiliate them.

They sought a verdict of refraining from punishment by appealing article 13 of law No. 91/ 2013 on fighting human trafficking, which bans the verdict of refraining from punishment for those convicted of such crimes. The Constitutional Court cancelled the aforementioned article.

However, the defendants’ appeal was not accepted, as the Criminal Court said the relevant article prevents the judge from using the authority granted to him in terms of deciding if the court needs to refrain from punishing the convicted or not based on his own evaluation of the situation and determination of a suitable penalty.

The court said the appealed article is considered as interference in the judiciary work by the legislative authority, and regarded such interference as negatively affecting the judicial independence, as it violates articles 34, 50 and 163 of the Constitution of Kuwait.

Meanwhile, the Court of Appeals adjourned to September 15, 2019 the lawsuit of KGL Company filed against the Russian citizen Lazreva, Saeed Dashti and others. The case was adjourned to summon the witnesses. The court decided to extend the detention of Dashti, and rejected the request for reducing the bail bond to KD 10 million.

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