A premature baby died after its parents did not seek medical attention that could have saved its life, out of the mother’s fear that she would be deported.
The expatriate parents, who went on to bury the child in an unmarked grave in Adhari, were each sentenced to three years in prison by the High Criminal Court yesterday.
The 35-year-old Filipina mother and 26-year-old Pakistani father were found guilty of neglecting their child by not seeing a doctor during or after the pregnancy, especially as it was born prematurely.
This neglect, which is legally classified as mistreatment, unintentionally led to the baby’s death. The couple was also convicted of concealing the birth and death from the authorities.
Had the infant, born after six to seven months of pregnancy, been taken to hospital, it would have likely survived, according to medics.
A friend of the mum’s, a fellow Filipina, was sentenced to six months in prison for helping the woman bury the baby’s corpse in secret and preventing an investigation into the death.
Both Filipinas were sentenced to an additional month in prison for not having a valid residency in Bahrain. Judges ruled to deport all three defendants after completing their sentences.
The story began when the expat couple met online on TikTok in 2022. The woman travelled to Bahrain to join her delivery driver sweetheart in early 2024, the court heard.
“In March 2025, the defendant took a pregnancy test, which turned out to be positive,” the court ruling document read. “The couple agreed to keep the baby. She did not go to the doctor because her visa had expired.
“On August 23, while alone in their apartment, the defendant felt pain and contractions, despite only being six to seven months pregnant.
“Her water broke and she pushed hard. Ten minutes later, the baby had arrived. She used a pair of scissors to cut the baby’s umbilical cord.
“The baby had a fully-formed body. She heard it cry and she tried to breastfeed it but it would not drink. The next day, around 2am, she noticed that the baby was pale and showed signs of asphyxiation, with its colour turning yellow.”
The couple tried to revive the child but it passed away. “A child of that gestational age requires specialised medical attention to live, and not presenting that care is considered neglect,” the court determined.
It continued to state that the couple decided to hide what had happened, then the two Filipinas met outside their workplace in the Adhari area, finding an empty lot in which to bury the child. After wrapping it in a white cloth, the mother dug a small grave near a mosque and the friend lowered it in. The mum promised to visit the grave, the court was told.
In December, nearly four months later, the authorities were alerted and exhumed the body.
An autopsy was conducted by a medical examiner, who noted that its body measured 40cm long, and that the baby had hair on its head, complete limbs and ribs connected to tissue.
“The corpse appeared to be six to seven months of gestational age, its bones were fully formed and there were no fractures or wounds,” the forensic doctor told the Public Prosecution. “We were not able to ascertain its sex. Furthermore, it is impossible to find out if it was a live or stillbirth, but it was not in its placenta.
“The umbilical cord was cut and tied with a non-medical thread, which indicates that it did not receive medical attention after birth.”
A DNA test revealed that the defendants were the biological parents. The mother was medically examined and prosecutors stated that there was evidence of a recent, natural delivery.
Witnesses - mainly the Filipinas’ co-workers - testified that the mother had lied to them and said that she had sent the baby back to its father’s home country of Pakistan.
“I found out that the defendant was pregnant from her husband, and in August she told me that she had given birth, so I asked her about the baby and she said it was alright,” a co-worker stated. “In December, I decided to bring some baby supplies as a present, but was told that the baby had died and was buried next to work,” she told the Public Prosecution.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))