On April 4, 2016, two female American contractors wrongfully jailed were declared innocent by a Kuwaiti court. The Law team of a Group first heard about the women who had been incarcerated for 10 months at that time; and determined that they had a moral obligation to seek justice on behalf of the women, Monique and Larissa.
The women were sentenced to 25 years each in Kuwaits central prison. They were being held for possession of a substance which was independently tested at a German facility and determined to be a legal synthetic drug in Kuwait. Their sentences should have been overturned at that point, however sentencing for both women continued. Further, the investigating officer failed repeatedly to appear at hearings leading to speculation as to weather any evidence was found or not. Only One of the women had traces of any drug in her system at time of arrest.
Very little has appeared in local media regarding the case, however many articles have appeared in the US media as their mothers fought to seek the release of their daughters.
the law group first heard of the case from a local contractor, Mike S. Seeking the women's release quickly escalated as all members of their legal team banded together to expedite work on the case. After completion of official procedures, both women should be freed this week.
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4 comments:
hope they are Monique and Larissa and god helps them if they are not all the best to whom were released
If you are a friend of these women - do NOT go to the jail to demand that they be released to you. Some guy went to the Central Prison (covered in tatoos and an attitude) shouting that they should be immediately released.
You are NOT in America!
Don't think that anyone is going to play fair and it is possible that someone may get pissed off and decide to put them back in for a while longer.
They will be out once the official procedures are done.
Please do a follow up on this story if you can. I would really like to know more about these young ladies and what they went through.
HassanLuv78 - The last I heard was that they were flying home over the weekend. The delay in freedom was because they had fines that they had to pay (they were on visitor visas and the country doesn't care if you are in jail or not - if you overstay your "welcome" you have to pay fines) and since they were on visitor visas, they had to go through the deportation process rather than just being allowed to go back to life in Kuwait. Once they pay the fines, they will be able to re-enter the country to take care of whatever they need to take care of (home furnishing, pets, etc.)
Their lawyers have asked them to wait until they get to the US to make any statements or press releases. They'll need a few days of rest and then you will probably read something about it in the US news.
They should sell their story. "Banged Up Abroad" for example.
These women should NEVER have received the sentence they did. Never should have happened.
They had a lawyer who was demanding more money (5000KD each) to do anything at all (and they would have been left in jail for the full 25 year gig), so they fired her and retained my friends' firm. This firm thought that they could do it pro-bono, but unfortunately, there were a lot of other costs involved (one of them should be able to fight to get compensation for being wrongfully jailed for example). The current firm is not asking for crazy money and they're being flexible about payment terms to make it easier on them. It was more of a "we need to do something to get them out first and then think about costs."
By the way, there is another American woman in jail on a drug charge. She was found in possession of not a lot of hashish (I think something like 5 grams) and she is on year 3 of a 5 year sentence.
I'm telling you know: EVERY foreigner living in Kuwait should find a good/reliable/kind lawyer and maintain a relationship with them. You never know. You might need to ask a question. You might have a small problem. You might be faced with a big problem. Find a lawyer. Make friends. Send baked goods. Stay on good terms. You are NOT in Kansas anymore, Toto....
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