A man is on trial for burning a windshield cover while standing on top of a mound in the Tylos-era archaeological site in Hajar, the High Criminal Court heard yesterday.
The 49-year-old Bahraini man was charged with brandishing a knife against two policemen who tried to arrest him, and using obscenities against them that intended to harm their reputation.
“It was 3am, and I was going around Hajar, looking for discarded items that I can collect and sell,” the suspect with a troubled past and long criminal record earlier told the Public Prosecution.
“I went on top of a tell (mound) in the Tylos site, and I set fire to my car’s polyester sunshade. There was a small fire and I sat next to it until it went out.
“I went inside the village, looking for more scrap when police asked me to come with them to their patrol car. I refused because I hadn’t done anything wrong.
“I was sober and in a normal state of mind. The fire was so tiny that it extinguished on its own and didn’t pose any sort of danger to anyone.”
The policeman who arrested the defendant gave his account of the April incident to the court, stating that he and his partner had received a report about a fire at the Tylos site and were investigating.
“We inspected the crime scene. A witness informed us that the defendant had been seen near his house,” the 28-year-old Bahraini officer testified.
When they located him the ruckus unfolded. “We asked him to come with us because he was wanted, but he began screaming vulgarities at us, calling us thieves and so on,” the officer told the court.
“He pointed a box cutter at us. We had to use necessary force to subdue him and deployed pepper spray on him. He kept pushing us away and caused mild bruising.”
The defendant has denied charges of starting a fire in a way that posed a danger to others’ lives and property, and carrying weapons. He also denied using violence against civil servants and threatening them with the intention to obstruct them from doing their work.
Furthermore, he denied publicly insulting Interior Ministry employees, disrespecting them, injuring their reputation and standing by making baseless claims about them.
The prosecution stated that the man’s criminal record included similar accusations to the charges. Judges adjourned the trial to July 1 for defence arguments.
The extensive Hajar Dilmun and Tylos Cemeteries, featuring mounds that are both excavated and unexcavated.
The Dilmun and Tylos Cemeteries in Hajar are located on Budaiya Highway, and are protected as part of a big, multi-era archaeological site, which ranges from 4,000 to 1,700 years ago (2000 BCE to 300 CE).
The site includes still-unexcavated burial mounds from the Hellenistic period, when Bahrain was called Tylos.
The Hajar necropolis is well-known for its rock-cut graves, a number of underground burials, some are still covered with flat capstones. Numerous artefacts were unearthed from the site, like complex pottery pieces, fine glass vessels, iron weapons, stamp and cylinder seals, jewellery items and two unique limestone statues.
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