Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 1721

The acquittal of the defendant to the civil claim—which has acquired the force of res judicata—does not prevent the criminal court, when deciding the merits of the appeal in the ancillary civil action—after reversal or cassation of the judgment dismissing it—from examining the elements of the offence in terms of the fulfilment of its constituent elements and their establishment against the defendant to the civil claim, without being bound by the acquittal. Invoking the binding authority of the criminal judgment. Impermissible. The reason: the difference in subject matter between the two actions.