A woman, who forged an MP’s signature to end her employment in his office, has lost her first appeal against sentence.
In May, the Bahraini teacher received a one-year prison sentence, suspended for three years.
Judges heard that the 34-year-old was on loan from the Education Ministry to Parliament and wanted to leave, claiming she faced bullying and was disrespected on the team’s WhatsApp group chat.
In her Public Prosecution interview, she stated that she was ‘harassed, disturbed and bullied’ at work, and had to resort to falsifying the elected official’s signature on a request to end her employment contract.
The High Criminal Court found her guilty of forgery and knowingly using a falsified document as if it was genuine.
She took to the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court to contest her guilt, but judges ruled to uphold the verdict.
Previously described in the Press as ‘a brilliant young author’, she was on secondment to work at the MP’s office, which is when an employee is temporarily transferred to another organisation.
While on loan, her role was to communicate with constituents and follow up on their requests, correspond with governmental bodies and do other tasks for the MP.
However, she did not seem to have enjoyed her time away from the classroom, frequently clashing with co-workers.
Deciding she ‘had enough’, she reportedly sent an inquiry to the MP Affairs Bureau about the procedure of ending her secondment at the office.
Two days later, she reportedly sent a form to human resources (HR) from the parliamentarian’s office’s email, which appeared to be signed by him.
The request was passed along to the council’s treasurer and the Civil Service Bureau, and it was approved.
The GDN earlier reported the MP’s prosecution testimony, who stated he was surprised when he was notified that the appellant no longer worked there.
After seeing the form, which he had not signed, he confronted the teacher, who admitted to filling it out and submitting the request and said ‘it wasn’t a big deal’.
According to her colleagues, she had the office mobile phone in her possession when the email was sent. She was asked to return it, and the MP noticed that all incoming and outgoing office emails had been deleted.
The suspended court sentence will only come into force if the appellant is unsuccessful with two further attempts to overcome the verdict in the legal system’s higher courts.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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