A DRIVER who killed a man and injured another in a car accident will be re-tried in a criminal court, the Cassation Court has ruled.
After the crash last August, the man was charged with reckless driving, vehicular manslaughter, damaging public property and posing a threat to traffic by merging lanes carelessly.
Last year, the Lower Criminal Court found him guilty of all charges, sentencing him to six months in jail and fining him BD1,000.
According to verdict documents, the penalty was replaced with community service.
On top of killing a man, the defendant also caused injuries to another passenger in the victim’s car, a relative who shares the victim’s surname, due to ‘not exercising the utmost care on the road’.
After the defendant appealed this verdict, the High Criminal Appeals Court ruled to overturn it because ‘the court is not specialised to make this judgement’.
Appeals judges reasoned that the appellant must be tried in a military court because he is a member of the defence forces.
However, the Public Prosecution’s head took to Cassation Court to contest this judgement, stating that the appellant only joined the military three months after the accident.
“As such, the appellant must be tried as a civilian because he was not a member of the defence forces at the time the crime was committed,” the prosecution said in its appeals papers.
Hence, Bahrain’s highest court ruled to overturn the manslaughter conviction, and return the case to the Lower Criminal Court ‘to once again make a ruling in the case’.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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