Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 572

Confession in criminal matters. Assessment of its validity and evidentiary value. Within the authority of the trial court. It may rely on the accused’s confession against himself or against other accused persons at any stage of the investigation, even if he retracts it, whenever it is satisfied with it. The accused’s insistence on its untruthfulness. A substantial defense. Requires the court to address and respond to it. - The judgment’s recitation of the appellants’ confession to hanging the female victim from the room’s ceiling fan with the seized shawl, as well as the autopsy report on the victim’s body and the female forensic physician’s statements ruling out the victim’s hanging from the fan with the seized shawl. Its reliance on the entirety of the foregoing evidence despite its contradictions, without addressing the appellants’ defense that their confession was untrue because it contradicted the truth and reality, and without resolving the contradiction between this confession and the autopsy report and the female forensic physician’s statements. Inadequacy and contradiction requiring its quashing.