The bolshy behaviour of an intoxicated hotel guest led him to incriminate himself to police after he insisted on filming officers at the scene of a blaze.
He was questioned after being asked to stop capturing the action on his smartphone and when the device was checked it showed him setting alight a two-seater sofa in the corridor of the building.
The High Criminal Court heard that the 37-year-old Bahraini boasted to prosecutors about attempting to burn down the Gulf Pearl Hotel in Hoora allegedly ‘just for fun’ although he denied being responsible to judges.
He told the High Criminal Court yesterday, where he is accused of arson and being drunk and disorderly, that he had accidentally caused the blaze with a fallen cigarette.
“I didn’t mean to cause the fire,” he told judges. “I was smoking a cigarette and I accidentally dropped it near a two-seater sofa.”
The court heard that he had told a completely different tale to prosecutors. “I was drinking a lot of alcohol at a hotel in Manama,” he said in his statement. “Due to being drunk I then decided to go to another hotel and continue drinking.
“As I was walking along a corridor I spotted a two-seater sofa and thought of burning it and the hotel just for fun. I used my lighter and set it ablaze.”
He described how he was apprehended when he continued to film fire fighters putting out the fire and police checking out the scene of the incident.
“I filmed them with my mobile phone,” he added. “I was not thinking at all and I blame my actions on the alcohol.”
A policeman described how he found the incriminating video footage. “He (the defendant) was filming us and looked to be in an abnormal state,” the 40-year-old Bahraini officer told prosecutors.
“We asked him to stop but he would not listen to us.
“We then apprehended him. I spotted video footage on his mobile phone which showed him setting a two-seater sofa on fire using his cigarette lighter.”
The trial has been adjourned until November 8 for a ruling.
The GDN earlier reported that 10 fire engines rushed to the hotel and fire fighters extinguished burning furniture and smouldering areas of carpet.
All 140 hotel guests staying in the building had to be evacuated by the Civil Defence. Ten Saudi tourists were treated for minor injuries and smoke inhalation by ambulance crews.
A hotel official said that the damage was limited to the piece of furniture, carpeting and fire doors.
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