A wheelchair-bound man, who was found guilty of evading arrest by escaping through his bedroom window and then assaulting policemen after they caught up with him, has lost his court appeal.
Although the Bahraini ex-convict claimed that the accusations were ‘impossible’ because he is physically disabled, the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court rejected his bid to contest the ruling.
In March, the 46-year-old was sentenced to three years in prison by the High Criminal Court for using force and violence against an on-duty public security officer and not complying with police.
Although the Public Prosecution’s version of the events depicts the appellant as fit and mobile, he had come to the court hearing in a wheelchair, dressed in his grey prison uniform.
He told judges that he had been disabled for years, and suffers from a health condition which makes him unable to walk or stand on his own feet.
“This is my condition,” he said, gesturing at himself. “How could I resist them or harm the policemen? My back and arm are injured.”
Meanwhile, the officers earlier testified that they were despatched to a house in Salmabad to arrest the defendant, who was wanted in several criminal cases.
The two policemen were let into the house by a relative of the suspect, and was led to his upstairs room. There was no response when they knocked on his door, 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-wielding Bahraini tried to resist arrest, attacking him with a screwdriver and knife and causing ‘mild scratches’, according to a medical report.
He claimed in court that one of the police officers ‘slipped the tools’ into his possession, but his defence failed, and he was convicted by the High Criminal Court.
Prior to the incident, the man had spent five years in prison on charges of armed robbery, and is currently facing more than one ongoing trials in court.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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