Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 1040

The rule is that the trial court is not bound by the legal characterization which the Public Prosecution assigns to the act attributed to the accused. The reason for that: this characterization is not final by its nature and cannot prevent the court from amending it to the correct legal characterization. It is not obliged to alert the accused or his defence counsel to the amendment it has made. The amendment being confined to excluding one element of the offence for which the action was brought, without involving the attribution of a new material fact or the addition of elements differing from the original incident. No infringement of the right of defence. An example concerning amendment of the charge from attempted murder to the misdemeanor of striking in a perceptible manner. B: Impermissibility of amending the characterization on the basis of facts in respect of which the action was not brought: