AN ANGRY Bahraini allegedly drove a car into a US military man following a night club brawl before running over him three times in a parking lot, a court heard.
The 25-year-old appeared at the High Criminal Court, where he denied insulting and attempting to murder the 32-year-old.
The serving American criminal investigations officer at the naval base in Juffair was rushed to Bahrain Specialist Hospital by friends and underwent a series of operations after suffering back and rib injuries.
The court heard the driver had jumped into a friend’s white Toyota Corolla before running the man over three times outside a hotel in Juffair last December. His victim suffered a 15 per cent permanent disability according to a medical report, attached to case files.
The American serviceman described the horror when he heard the vehicle’s tyres screeching before desperately clinging on to its front bumper before being thrown into the air and the vehicle being driven over him three times.
He told the court how he earlier confronted the defendant, after the latter allegedly pushed his Tunisian fiancée, who works at the hotel night spot.
“My fiancée is a supervisor at the night club in the hotel in Juffair,” he said as he recounted his ordeal to prosecutors. “I was about to leave the club at midnight, as per the rules of the US military base. However, I then noticed a drunk person (defendant) talking in Arabic to my fiancée.
“I did not understand what he was saying, but I then saw him push her. I confronted him and told him that he had no right to touch her.
“He insulted me and my fiancée. She calmed me down because she didn’t want me to get into trouble as I hold a prestigious position at the US base.”
He listened to her and went home to play his video games console with his friends, before his fiancée informed him that the defendant had returned to the night club and continued to bother her.
“The defendant and his friends then waited for me outside the night club and said that they would hurt my fiancée if I did not show up,” he claimed. “I came back, accompanied by my friends, to her aid.”
An altercation took place between the two groups. “I then heard tyres screeching, before my friends warned me to get out of the way,” he added in his evidence to the court.
“The defendant ploughed his vehicle into me and I attempted to hold onto its front bumper. However, he then pressed the brake and I fell to the ground, he must have been going at least 40kmph. He then drove over me three times in an attempt to kill me.
“I must have then fainted and my friends took me to a hospital in Juffair. I suffered seven broken ribs and injuries to my back.”
The trial has been adjourned until Wednesday for review.
noorz@gdn.com.bh
&uuid=(email))