A SELF-CONFESSED drug addict who assaulted police officers at Bahrain International Airport (BIA) claimed he thought they were kidnapping him.
The 30-year-old Bahraini is currently standing trial at the High Criminal Court where he is accused of assaulting police officers as well as using hashish and methamphetamine (locally known as shabu).
A co-defendant, a 29-year-old Pakistani man, is also facing drug use charges and both defendants have been in custody since November 23 last year.
Court documents revealed that upon inspecting the 30-year-old at the Public Prosecution during his interrogation, detectives noticed whip marks on his back – allegedly caused by wires – and bruises.
“On October 7, I was out with the 29-year-old to take a car ride and get high together,” he told the Public Prosecution in his statement.
“He smokes hashish and I burn shabu in foil and use it orally and when I do that I get extremely paranoid and think everyone is out to get me.
Hysterical
“My friend and I had an argument and he threatened to kill me so I ran out of the car and called another friend to pick me up.”
According to his statement, while they were driving past BIA his paranoia increased and he got out of the car and walked into the airport.
Court documents revealed that upon seeing crowds in the airport the 30-year-old went hysterical.
“I was in a really bad state of mind and I thought that a group of people were following me to beat me to death,” he added.
“I panicked and I thought I was going to die so I screamed (Allahu Akbar) and kneeled preparing for death.
“Then three people came to me in plain clothes and my paranoia kicked in because I thought they wanted to kill me.
“I lose my mind when I use shabu which I have been doing since 2014 and I didn’t know they were police officers.
“I’m really sorry I didn’t mean to hurt anyone but I went hysterical because I thought I was getting kidnapped and not legally arrested.”
Meanwhile, court documents also revealed that the 30-year-old has been convicted of robberies in the past.
A 19-year-old Bahraini officer working at BIA told the Public Prosecution that the 30-year-old was acting hysterical and screaming.
“He was in a hysterical state and he was screaming and kneeling so I approached him to calm him down but he was too crazed to hear me,” he told prosecutors.
“My fellow officers heard the screaming and we calmly escorted him to a room away from the public.
“One minute he was laughing, then crying, then screaming and also calling us weird names and saying if we don’t execute him he will commit suicide.”
According to the 19-year-old, the officers sat him down and handcuffed him before he flew into a rage.
Court documents revealed that while officers were trying to subdue him the 30-year-old continued the assault for seven minutes.
“The 30-year-old is of huge stature and he kept body-slamming us and hitting us with the handcuffs in his hands,” added the 19-year-old.
“We were in our uniforms and his claims that we weren’t are absurd.
“The 30-year-old is lying because of the mental state he was in.”
The trial was yesterday adjourned for the sixth time until Sunday, pending a psychiatric evaluation of the 30-year-old while keeping both defendants in custody.
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