Dubai: Kuwait’s Court of Appeal sentenced a Kuwaiti lawyer and his four Egyptian staff to 15 years in prison for kidnapping and beating a rival Kuwaiti lawyer, local media reported.
In its ruling, the appeals court overturned an earlier verdict issued by the Criminal Court, which sentenced the Kuwaiti lawyer and his four Egyptian accomplices to life imprisonment for kidnapping and beating his lawyer colleague.
Earlier, the criminal court also charged them with taking away the lawyer’s freedom and impersonating police detectives. According to court papers, the victim accused his colleague of sending four of his office employees to kidnap him outside his office building.
The convicts took the lawyer victim in their vehicle to a livestock farm owned by his colleague where they assaulted him while he was handcuffed. They then transported him in their vehicle and dumped him in a random site. However, a police patrol saw them while they were throwing the victim out of the car.
The Egyptian convicts were referred to trial on charges of kidnapping, beating, theft, confinement and impersonating detectives. The Kuwaiti convict denied the charges but his accomplices confessed to the crime.
The case received a lot of media attention.
