Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 148

Summary: - Reporting by every person who witnessed the commission of a crime or learned of its occurrence is incumbent upon that person, immediately, to the nearest police or investigation authority. Article 14 of the Criminal Procedure and Trials Law. - The crimes of misuse of telephone communications devices and eavesdropping fall outside the scope of crimes in which criminal proceedings may be instituted only upon a complaint. The challenge in this regard is unfounded. - Responding to the plea of inadmissibility of the proceedings for having been instituted by a person without standing by reference to the right to report and the fact that the telephone line used for the messages belongs to the victim. This is sufficient to dismiss the appellant’s plea that the victim lacked standing to initiate criminal proceedings. Rule: The challenged judgment addressed the plea of inadmissibility of the proceedings for having been instituted by a person without standing and dismissed it, stating that—in addition to the telephone line receiving the messages belonging to the victim—he is obliged, pursuant to Article 14 of the Criminal Procedure and Trials Law, which provides that every person who witnesses the commission of a crime or learns of its occurrence must immediately report it to the nearest police or investigation authority, and that the 2 crimes charged against the accused fall outside the scope of crimes in which criminal proceedings may not be instituted except upon a complaint, as provided by Article 109 of the Criminal Procedure and Trials Law. Consequently, the plea had no valid basis in fact or law. The judgment’s response to the plea—as set out above—accords with the proper application of the law and sufficiently supports dismissing the appellant’s plea that the victim lacked standing to initiate criminal proceedings. Accordingly, what the appellant raises in this regard is unsound.