Court Acquitted Ministry Employee Of Molesting Charges

The Court of Cassation upheld the verdict issued by a lower court which acquitted a ministry employee who was accused of assaulting his female colleague at work. According to the case file, the victim explained that, before leaving the office at the end of working hours, she went into a room that is designated for clocking herself out. When she put her card on the device for clocking out, she was shocked to feel someone hug her from behind with his arms around her waist. She screamed and ran out of the office, after which she called her husband and informed him about what happened. He told her to go to her children’s school to collect their children.

During the investigation, when the husband was questioned, he explained that his wife had called him at 1:30 pm and told him what had happened to her. After he sent her away to collect the children, he went to his wife’s workplace and met with the man who hugged his wife. When he approached him and asked for him by his name, the accused insulted him and beat him. When the witness was questioned, he said the victim called him at around 12:30 pm or 1:00 pm and informed him about what the accused had done to her, adding that she was screaming and crying. When the accused was questioned, he denied the charges.

He explained that the woman came at 1:25 pm on the day of the incident, and asked him to clock out one of her colleagues. He refused and expelled her from the office. He insisted that what she claimed did not happen. The defense counsel representing the defendant, Lawyer Ali Al-Wawan, said the indictment papers lacked firm and certain evidence of guilt proving that his client committed the act on the plaintiff. He stressed that the indictment evidence presented by the Public Prosecution to convict his client fell short of reaching the level of sufficiency.

Lawyer Al-Wawan highlighted the contradiction between the victim’s statements and the statements of witnesses, insisting that the accusation against his client was fabricated. Through his plea, he affirmed that it is established in the Court of Cassation that the weight or assessment of the witness’s statements is up to the trial court and that it is sufficient in criminal trials for that court to doubt the validity of attributing the charge to the accused to acquit him. The matter in this regard depends on what the court is confident of in determining the evidence, as long as what appears from its ruling is that it examined the case, took into account its circumstances and the evidence of proof on which the accusation was based, with insight, and balanced it with the evidence of denial, so it gave preference to the accused’s defense, or it was suspicious of the elements of proof.

By Jaber Al-Hamoud

Al-Seyassah/Arab Times Staff

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