And you thought the American legal system was bad...

So much crap printed in the local media, and so little time to comment...

You never know by the reporting whether justice is being done or not. Here's a couple of examples in today's papers...

Death sentence
KUWAIT: The Court of Appeal has approved
the execution of two persons for smuggling hashish and opium into the country
from Iran by the sea. The court did not listen to the suspects' lawyer who
claimed that they did not know there were drugs on the boat. They also claimed
that there were other sailors on the boat besides them.

Appeals acquits 3 securitymen in kidnap, rape of Asian
woman
KUWAIT CITY: The Court of Appeals Tuesday overturned the verdict of the
Criminal Court and acquitted three securitymen — M. Al-Ajmi, S. Al-Otaibi and H.
Al-Shimmari - who had been accused of kidnapping and raping an Asian woman,
identified only as D.Y. On June 25, 2005, the Criminal Court had found the men
guilty and sentenced them to 15 years in jail. According to case papers the
victim was stopped by a police patrol on Aug 11, 2004 in a suburb of Nugra and
taken to the Nugra Police Station and was left in the custody of the prime
suspect, Ajmi.

After checking her identification papers, Ajmi convinced the
victim that she was in legal trouble and accompanied her to a nearby chalet
where he raped her after promising to help her with her ‘troubles’. He took her
mobile phone number and let her go. She added four days later, Ajmi called her
and told her that he wanted to ‘mediate’ in her problem. He took her to a café
where he introduced her to the other two accused. The men allegedly hit her on
the head and neck and raped her inside their vehicle because she resisted their
attempts. The victim said Otaibi took her to a desert and the other two men
followed them in another vehicle where the trio raped her. Then, Otaibi returned
her to her home. The victim then filed a case with the Chief Prosecutor. The
police station officer testified his investigations revealed the three men had
committed the crime according to a case filed by the victim. He added the men
had verbally admitted to committing the crime.

In major crimes, if it is committed by a citizen their name will most likely be withheld, yet for a similar offense, not only is an expat's name published, but the convicted criminal's photo is published (in the case of smugglers, with all their confiscated contraband).

Here's another run-in with "Justice" that's just plain funny...

‘Angry’ judge detains bedoun: A bedoun youth holding Colombian citizen and
identified as M.S, was detained for 24 hours upon orders of the Traffic Court
judge, reports Al-Rai Al-Aam daily. The youth was attending a session on traffic
violations and when the judge remarked on his long hair, he retorted saying it
was his ‘personal freedom’. The angry judge ordered the youth’s detention for 24
hours. The youth who is studying at an unidentified institute begged the judge
to delay execution of the ‘verdict’ saying he had to appear for his examination
but the judge refused to budge.

So, I'd like to know if it's illegal to have long hair, or it's illegal to talk to the judge, or what?