An Egyptian man, who robbed his Bahraini ‘girlfriend’ at knifepoint, then pawned her iPhone 16 Pro Max for cash, has been sentenced to a year in prison by the High Criminal Court.
To force her to hand over her mobile phone, the 34-year-old barber pricked the woman’s thigh with the edge of a knife, the court heard.
He was found guilty of robbery and gaining access to his girlfriend’s phone without her permission. Judges ruled to deport him once his sentence has been completed.
The December theft took place when the couple sat in the woman’s car to talk things out, since she had lent him BD750 and he had refused to return it.
The 30-year-old Bahraini dental assistant earlier recorded the Egyptian admitting to borrowing the money, and threatened to report him to authorities if he did not pay her back.
He asked her to meet him, then snatched her phone, forced her to give up her PIN under threat of stabbing, then ran away with it.
He claimed in court that she gave him the phone of her own free will, stating that she was ‘a very kind girl’ who wanted to help him out because he was unemployed.
He stated: “She knows I’m going through a rough time.” He claimed she had ‘voluntarily’ given him her pink iPhone to sell, after removing her iCloud account from it and erasing her data.
Although the Egyptian testified that he was in a relationship with the woman, she denied it, telling prosecutors that ‘it had not developed into that yet’.
According to court documents, the two first got to know each other in November through social media and soon became friends, going on walks and outings together and meeting ‘semi-daily’.
After the Egyptian lost his job and was evicted from his apartment, the woman lent him BD750, and he kept stalling the repayment. So, she threatened to lodge a report against him to the authorities, using a voice recording as evidence.
“When he found out that she recorded him admitting to borrowing the amount, he asked her to delete the audio file, but she later recovered it,” read the Public Prosecution’s account. “He later stalled again, so she threatened to report him again. He told her there was no need to resort to that, and asked her to meet him. They met in a sandy lot in the Juffair area.”
That was when he stole her iPhone, which she had placed in the car door of the driver’s seat. He also slapped her twice on her face.
The 34-year-old expatriate said that during that fateful meeting, the two discussed jealousy and exclusivity, which was an issue in their relationship.
“She saw that I was talking to other girls, felt jealous and said she wanted to break up,” he claimed. “I also found a man on her phone, and we agreed that I’ll stop talking to the girls and she’ll stop talking to him.
“She told me to sell her phone, ‘then we’ll work out the girl situation’. But later, she blocked me and we lost touch.”
He told the prosecution that the woman said ‘because I’m an honourable lady, I’m giving you my phone to pay rent with’.
The Egyptian, who came to Bahrain three years ago, had been accused of other alleged offences, the court heard. He faced charges of fraud, commercial dishonesty and refusing to return money that had been wired to him by accident.
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