The appeals court has upheld a one-year prison sentence issued in the case of an expatriate who robbed his Bahraini girlfriend at knifepoint, then pawned her iPhone 16 Pro Max for cash.
In March, the High Criminal Court found the out-of-work Egyptian guilty of robbery and gaining access to the woman’s phone without her permission. Judges ruled to deport him after completing his sentence.
The GDN earlier reported that, on the day of the incident, the couple sat in the 30-year-old woman’s car to talk things out, since she had lent him BD750 but he refused to return it.
The Bahraini dental assistant earlier recorded him admitting to borrowing the money, and threatened to report him to the authorities if he did not pay her back.
He asked her to meet, then snatched her phone, and forced her to give up the PIN code under threat of stabbing – he had pricked the woman’s thigh with the edge of a knife. After unlocking the mobile, he reportedly ran away with it.
The 34-year-old unemployed barber took to the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court to appeal the sentence, but the penalty was upheld.
Although he had only immigrated to Bahrain three years ago, the appellant is facing four separate cases of litigation.
The court heard that he had racked up a list of other accusations, including fraud, commercial dishonesty, threatening to commit a crime and refusing to return money that was wired to him by accident.
The GDN earlier reported that the pair met on TikTok in 2025 and soon became close friends, going on walks and outings together and meeting ‘semi-daily’.
Although the Egyptian testified that he was in a relationship with her, she denied it, telling prosecutors that ‘it had not developed into that yet’.
After the man lost his job and was evicted from his apartment, the woman lent him BD750, and he kept putting off the agreed repayment. So, she threatened to lodge a report against him to 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,” said the Public Prosecution. “He later stalled again, so she threatened to report him once more,” it added. “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 snatched her iPhone, which she had placed in the car door of the driver’s seat, then he slapped her twice on her face, the court heard.
He had claimed that the woman gave him the phone of her own free will, stating that was a ‘very kind girl who wanted to help me out because I’m unemployed’.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))