A husband who was fined BD50 for eavesdropping on his wife’s phone calls without her consent, bugging her house and sending the recordings to his siblings has lost his final appeal at the Cassation Court.
Last July, the Public Prosecution issued an order fining the Arab man BD20 on eavesdropping charges, without referring the misdemeanour to court, but he objected to the ruling in the Lower Criminal Court.
However, the court convicted him of covertly placing listening devices in the woman’s car and bedroom in 2022, and secretly recording a conversation between her and their daughter.
He was also found guilty of divulging the contents of her private conversations without her permission, sending the recordings to his brothers and sisters, and even playing it to her brother.
Finally, he was found liable for causing harm to the woman through his actions.
Dismissing the prosecution’s order, the court ruled to fine the Arab man BD50, a ruling which was upheld twice at the Supreme Criminal Appeals and Cassation Courts.
All throughout, the man denied all the allegations, with his defence making several claims in an attempt to get their client dismissed.
In a defence memo, his lawyer stated that the accusation was made up out of spite, and that the wife was too slow to report the matter to authorities.
Another claim was that the prosecution witnesses, the woman’s brother and daughter, testified against him because they ‘were doing it to please the woman’ and that their statements were biased.
The defence also claimed there was not enough proof to convict him, with no recordings submitted to authorities and no evidence that he opened her car or bugged it, or possessed or owned any of the confiscated devices.
In the Cassation Court’s verdict, judges stated that the man’s attempts to cast doubt on the validity of the evidence were simply an attempt to escape consequences for his act.
The entire appeal was completely dismissed, with the judges ruling that it was baseless and does not deserve to be heard.
According to the Bahraini Penal Code: “A fine not exceeding BD20 shall be the penalty for any person who opens a letter or telegram against the will of the addressee or eavesdrop on a telephone conversation.
“An offender shall be liable for imprisonment for a period not exceeding six months or a fine not exceeding BD50 if he divulges the contents of the letter, telegram or telephone conversation to a person other than that to whom it has been intended and without the permission thereof should such action cause damage thereto.”
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