A PYROMANIAC psychiatric patient has been sentenced to a year in prison by the High Criminal Court for setting fire to a discarded sofa.
The 54-year-old defendant claimed that he was ‘worried delinquents would sit on the sofa’, so he decided to burn it, adding that the chair was ‘smelly anyway’.
He was found guilty of intentionally starting a fire that posed a danger to others’ lives and property in the historic Manama neighbourhood of Fareej Al Fadhel.
Despite suffering from substance abuse issues and associated psychotic symptoms, as noted in a Psychiatric Hospital evaluation, the man was nevertheless deemed fit to stand trial.
He has at least five arson-related charges or convictions in his criminal record, and an assortment of theft, harassment and drug-related cases. Some charges were previously dismissed on psychiatric grounds.
The man’s criminal record, which stretches back to at least 2006, shows multiple instances of him deliberately setting fire to objects or structures.
In February 2024, he intentionally started a fire in a dumpster, which spread to the wall of a nearby abandoned house, causing damage.
He reportedly collected waste next to the garbage container and set it aflame. The High Criminal Court found him guilty of the same charges as in the current case.
The GDN earlier reported witness testimonies from the February 2025 incident, including an Indian water delivery driver who saw the incident unfold while on the job.
He said he saw the defendant smoking next to a dumpster and then using a lighter to ignite the sofa, starting the fire. The resourceful expat extinguished the flames with the water he was delivering.
A 61-year-old Bahraini landlord, who had gone to the rooftop of one of his buildings to inspect a water leak, also provided his account of the incident to the Public Prosecution.
“I saw thick smoke emanating from the back of the building. I went to the source, where I saw the Indian witness pulling a burning sofa,” the sound engineer recounted.
Shortly after the fire, the defendant was stopped and arrested by policemen in the nearby Manama Suq, and he was already wanted on allegations of stealing a bike.
Charred remains of the sofa were found at the scene by investigators, and there are photos that reportedly captured the man in the act.
The defendant appears to belong to the ‘bidoon’ (meaning ‘without’ in Arabic) category of stateless individuals who were born in Bahrain or spent most of their lives in the country.
No citizenship has been indicated in the defendant’s biographic information across multiple documents issued by different governmental bodies, although he does possess a CPR number. When asked what his nationality, he told prosecutors he had none, but stated that his family originated from a neighbouring nation.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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