TWO Bahrainis have been convicted of accepting hundreds of thousands of dinars to conspire with Qatar.
Waheed Al Dossary, who was the president of the Professional Fishermen’s Society, was yesterday jailed for five years and fined BD2,000 for accepting funds from Qatari officials to share information about Bahrain, collecting funds without a licence and failing to declare cash at the airport.
The 55-year-old was also accused of being bankrolled by Qatar’s former Interior Minister Shaikh Abdullah bin Khaled Al Thani to run in last year’s parliament elections.
His accomplice, a 52-year-old civil servant who worked at the Muharraq Municipality, was handed a three-year jail sentence and a BD1,000 fine by the High Criminal Court.
Advocate General Dr Ahmed Al Hammadi yesterday said that based on an investigation it was found that a combined BD235,804 was wired to both defendants over the years.
However, he added that the figure did not include cash received from Qatari officials such as BD52,0000 confiscated from Mr Al Dossary and BD172,000 confiscated from the former civil servant.
“One of the defendants received money from outside Bahrain in order to support his election campaign for parliament,” said Dr Al Hammadi in a statement.
“Investigations revealed that the purpose of those funds was to cause turmoil in the country, including interfering in Bahrain’s interior matters by working in legislative authorities while serving foreign directions and goals.
“A warrant was issued to monitor their phone calls, which proved their involvement and they were arrested upon arrival to Bahrain with more than BD12,000 and 5,000 Qatari riyals that they failed to declare to customs.”
The GDN previously reported that the pair was arrested before Mr Al Dossary could file his nomination for the national elections, but he denied conspiring with Qatar and claimed he received a monthly salary because he worked for Shaikh Abdullah in a personal capacity.
According to prosecution arguments, Mr Al Dossary hoped to win a seat in parliament to use the position to promote Qatar’s agenda.
Shaikh Abdullah has been placed on an international terrorism list compiled by the Arab Quartet consisting of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, the UAE and Bahrain.
According to the US Department of Defence, the Qatari royal once invited Al Qaeda operative Khalid Sheikh Mohammed – regarded as the architect of the 9/11 attacks – to live in Qatar and was said to have used personal and government finances to fund Al Qaeda form groups operating as charities, as well as provided shelter, fake documents and other assistance as they travelled through Qatar.
reem@gdn.com.bh
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