Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 114

Summary: - A cassation appeal must be formally lodged and its grounds deposited within the statutory time limit. Article 9 of Law No. 40 of 1972 concerning Cases and Procedures of Appeal in Cassation. - Appeals brought by parties other than the Public Prosecution. The grounds of appeal must be signed by a lawyer. This signature is the sole evidence attesting that they emanate from their author in the manner recognized by law. - Signature of the grounds of appeal by the appellant—who is not a lawyer. Effect: the statement of grounds of appeal is void and without effect in the criminal proceedings. - A person sentenced to a non-custodial penalty. He must deposit the appeal security unless exempted from it. Failure to do so. The appeal is inadmissible as to form. Rule: Article 10 of Law No. 40 of 1972 concerning Cases and Procedures of Appeal in Cassation, after providing that the appeal must be formally lodged and its grounds deposited within the period prescribed in Article 9 thereof, required, in its third paragraph, that the grounds of appeals brought by parties other than the Public Prosecution be signed by a lawyer. By expressly imposing this requirement, the legislature indicated that the statement of grounds is a formal procedural document in the proceedings which must possess the constituent elements of its existence and be signed by its author, because the signature is the sole evidence attesting that it emanates from its author in the manner recognized by law. That being so, although the appellant formally lodged his cassation appeal within the time limit prescribed by law, examination of the memorandum of grounds of appeal shows that it bears the appellant’s signature—as appears from his signature on the grounds of the cassation appeal—and that he works as a salesman, as established by the documents and investigations, and is not a lawyer. Accordingly, the statement of grounds of appeal is void and without effect in the criminal proceedings. Moreover, Article 11 of Law No. 40 of 1972 concerning Cases and Procedures of Appeal in Cassation requires, for the admissibility of an appeal by a person sentenced to a non-custodial penalty, the deposit of security of fifty dinars with the Treasury of the Ministry of Justice, unless he is exempt from payment of fees. Since the appeal papers contain nothing indicating that the appellant, whom the judgment sentenced to a fine of five hundred dinars, deposited the security prescribed by law or was exempted from paying it, his appeal is inadmissible as to form.