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A drug dealer known by his ‘professional’ name ‘Bimbo’ has lost his court appeal against sentence despite vowing to shun a life of crime that has landed him a two-year spell behind bars.
In August, the High Criminal Court sentenced the 30-year-old Bahraini to prison and fined him BD3,000 for assaulting officers who were sent to arrest him over narcotics trading charges.
He was also found guilty of possessing hashish and methamphetamine for recreational use, and his previous convictions on similar charges acted as an aggravating circumstance in the case.
The wanted man, described as a ‘habitual offender’ by policemen, earlier denied committing violence to obstruct public security officers from enforcing the Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances laws.
He took to the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court to contest the sentence and submitted a heartfelt, hand-written letter addressed to judges, explaining his situation. He claimed that he was ‘freaked out’ when police officers called him with his professional name, ‘Bimbo’, and it led him to unintentionally lash out and hit them.
In the letter, he described how he was led down the path of crime, and promised to stay on the straight-and-narrow from here on in, vowing that his name would never be mentioned in a criminal case again.
“I’ve lived a very difficult childhood, full of suffering and deprivation, and I didn’t receive guidance that would’ve stopped me from going down this slippery slope I now find myself in,” read the letter.
“These circumstances have left wounds in my spirit that I carried with me well into adulthood. I was misguidedly looking for a way out, in a time of weakness.
“Nevertheless, I admit my mistake and I blame only myself for my actions.
“The period of time I’ve already spent in custody has been enough to teach me unforgettable lessons about the value of freedom, family and dignity.”
Meanwhile, the appellant’s lawyer picked a different strategy, defending the man’s reaction to the police call-out, as he had been apprehended while walking in the street.
She suggested that using the appellant’s nickname, Bimbo, ‘did not lend authority to the police’s orders for him to stop, and makes it appear that they were operating outside the framework of the law.
“Officers noticed his unsteady gait and decided to ambush him, although he was neither seen in a suspicious act, nor in the act of promoting or distributing drugs, and possessed drugs only for personal use.
“He does not qualify as the target of surveillance, and his penalty is harsh and disproportionate to the charges,” she concluded in the memo.
Despite these arguments, the High Criminal Court heard that the appellant was recognised on sight by police officers while on patrol, since he is a ‘repeat offender’ who was ‘known for stirring up trouble’.
According to authorities, he was carrying a bag that contained 0.52gm of meth and 2.53gm of hashish.
The nickname Bimbo could be a reference to a character in the 1978 Japanese cartoon Treasure Island, which was dubbed into Arabic in 1981, and continued to entertain generations of Arabs well into the early 2000s.
‘Bimbo’ is an Arabicisation (Arabic transliteration) of ‘Benbow’, the beloved pet leopard who accompanies the anime’s main character, Jim Hawkins, on his marine adventures.
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