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A debt-ridden man who was found guilty of forging 16 court verdicts and Public Prosecution rulings, in an attempt to trick his uncle into lending him money to pay off his debts, has lost a court appeal.
However, the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court suspended the Bahraini appellant’s one-year prison sentence. The penalty was halted for three years and he was let go from custody.
“Considering the circumstances of the case and the appellant’s lack of prior convictions, the court believes he will not commit such a crime again,” read the verdict.
Nevertheless, the 30-year-old appellant’s sentence was upheld. If the ruling is not overturned by the Cassation Court, he will begin his prison term three years from now.
In August, the man was found guilty by the High Criminal Court of committing forgery by looking up Bahraini court orders on Google, and then altering them on Microsoft Word for his personal profit.
The court heard that the 62-year-old uncle had lent BD25,000 in the past, and that the man reached out again for help, asking for BD3,000 more.
He claimed that he had BD91,000 held in escrow, which were soon to be released, and promised to give his uncle 40pc of the funds.
His uncle insisted on proof, and the appellant ‘bought some time’ by giving him faked documents, the court heard.
Standing before appeals judges, his attorney argued in a defence memorandum that ‘no harm – neither real nor anticipated – was inflicted by the appellant’s actions’.
“For a crime to have happened, harm has to have occurred,” the memo stated.
The attorney claimed that the victim, the uncle, handed his nephew the money of his own volition, before any documents were sent to him.
The defendant also asked for his confession to be discarded, claiming that it was given under ‘emotional and psychological pressure’, having been arrested at the airport, upon arriving in Bahrain.
“He didn’t know exactly what the accusations against him were, as he wasn’t informed, which makes his testimony unreliable,” the attorney added.
In the initial trial, the uncle appeared before the court and formally withdrew his complaint against his nephew, but the withdrawal was not taken into consideration since the trial had already begun when he submitted it.
According to the prosecution, the appellant admitted to the charges, and said that all documents given to his uncle were fake.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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