Supreme Court Justice Orders Release of Suspect in Illegal Gun Possession Case

Supreme Court Justice Khaled Kaboub has again ordered the release of a suspect accused of illegal weapons possession to house arrest, despite the state's efforts to combat what it calls a "plague on the nation" by toughening penalties and detaining suspects until trial. The suspect in question purchased two handguns and ammunition, keeping one at his father's home and the other at his grandmother's.

Initially, the District Court ordered the suspect held in custody until the end of proceedings. However, he appealed to the Supreme Court. Justice Kaboub accepted the appeal, ruling that since the weapon was not carried by the suspect or found in public, but rather in a locked safe at his grandmother's home, there was no indication of an offensive purpose for its possession.

Kaboub further stated that the possibility of achieving the arrest's objective through less restrictive means should not have been ruled out a priori. Adding another layer to the case, one of the individuals designated to supervise the suspect's house arrest is the wife of the suspect's father, the same father who reportedly received the second illegal handgun.

This decision follows several other instances where Justice Kaboub has ordered the release of individuals accused of weapons offenses to alternative detention, even as the state seeks to combat the phenomenon through harsher sentencing and pre-trial detention.