When we all thought the Benihana Kuwait saga was over following Mark’s initial win, a Kuwaiti Appeals Court has overturned the verdict and has awarded damages to Benihana. Here’s the situation as Mark explains it:
Well around a month after the victory Benihana appealed the courts decision which is their right to do and we headed to court once again. Except the second time it didn’t go so well.
Yesterday I found out that the court ruled in favor of Benihana and have ordered me to now pay them the sum of KD1,000. The court still hasn’t released their decision for this ruling and I have to wait around 2 weeks to find that out. I of course will be appealing the decision and be heading back to court to defend our right of freedom of expression.
I’m not well versed in the Kuwaiti legal system but I assume it is similar to the UAE where the next course of action would be Kuwait’s equivalent of a Supreme Court. Though I am surprised that the appeal succeeded; this would mean that the Appeal’s Court found some issue with the way the First Instance Court came to its initial verdict and had it overturned. I’m eagerly waiting for Mark to publish the details of the court’s decision to understand why they decided to take that action.
I support Mark’s actions and hope that he is able to succeed on behalf of bloggers across the Middle East.