A wheelchair-bound man has been sentenced to three years in prison for assaulting a police officer with a screwdriver and a knife.
The 46-year-old Bahraini was found guilty at the High Criminal Court of using force and violence against an on-duty public security officer in an attempt to prevent him from carrying out his duty.
He had been accused of evading arrest and jumping out of a bedroom window into a neighbouring property, though he insisted in court that that was ‘impossible’ because of his disability.
Policemen testified that they were despatched to a house in Salmabad to arrest the defendant, who was wanted for questioning in connection to several criminal investigations.
The two officers were let into the house by a relative of the suspect and were led to the man’s upstairs room. They knocked on his door, but there was no response, and the room appeared to be locked.
“We heard the sound of a window opening and he seemed to have jumped into a nearby house,” a 31-year-old policeman testified. “We ran downstairs and chased him.
“When we spotted him, I noticed he was carrying metal implements. I asked him to put them away but he didn’t. I stepped forward in an attempt to capture him but he tried to hurt me with the things he was carrying.”
He added that the tool-yielding Bahraini tried to resist arrest, attacking him with a screwdriver and knife and causing ‘mild scratches’ according to a medical report.
Although the prosecution’s account depicted the defendant as fit and mobile, he came to the court hearing in a wheelchair.
He addressed judges, stating that he had been disabled for years, and suffered from a health condition which made him unable to walk or stand on his own two feet.
“This is my condition,” he said, gesturing at himself during the hearing. “How could I resist them or harm them? My back and arm are injured.”
He also claimed in court that one of the police officers had ‘slipped the tools’ into his possession, an accusation dismissed by the court.
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