Kuwait Court of Cassation principle number 201

Summary: - The offence of printing any printed publication without submitting written notification to the competent ministry. Its completion: merely by making the circulated printed publication available among people indiscriminately, enabling them to view what is published therein, before submitting written notification of the printing to the ministry. Article 6/1 of Law 3 of 2006 concerning Press and Publications. - The offence of printing any printed publication without submitting written notification to the competent ministry. Does not require specific criminal intent. Inference of criminal intent. A matter of fact. The challenged judgment need not discuss it expressly and separately. Condition thereof. Rule: Article 6, in its first paragraph, of Law No. 3 of 2006 concerning Press and Publications provides that: "Before undertaking the printing of any printed publication, the printer must submit written notification thereof to the competent ministry and record therein his name and address." Article 26, appearing in Chapter 3 of the aforementioned Law, entitled (Matters Prohibited from Publication in a Printed Publication or Newspaper and Penalties), also provides that: "The perpetrator of any violation of the provisions of the articles of Chapter 1 of this Law shall be punished by a fine of not less than five hundred dinars and not exceeding one thousand dinars. If the printed publication contains anything contrary to the national interest, serves a foreign body or state, or affects the social or political system in Kuwait, the penalty shall be a fine of not less than three thousand dinars and not more than ten thousand dinars, without prejudice to any harsher penalty prescribed by another law—and confiscation of the printed publication shall be ordered in all cases." The import of the aforementioned Article 6 is that the offence of printing any printed publication without submitting written notification thereof to the competent ministry is completed merely by making the circulated printed publication available among people indiscriminately, enabling them to view what is published therein, before submitting written notification of the printing to the ministry. The law does not require specific intent for this offence; it is established by the existence of general intent with its two elements—knowledge and administration. Ascertainment of the existence or absence of this intent from the facts and circumstances of the case falls within the trial court's jurisdiction without review, provided that the implications of these facts and circumstances are not inconsistent with that conclusion. The judgment need not discuss it expressly and separately, so long as it sets out facts indicative of it. What the challenged judgment stated in its account of the facts of the case and its review of the substance of the evidence of guilt—as previously explained—is sufficient to demonstrate that the offence, with its material element and criminal intent, as defined by law, is established against the appellant, and itself includes an answer to his defence in this regard. Accordingly, the appellant's arguments in this regard are unsound.