A former law enforcer, who was found guilty of attempting to break in to his former workplace – the airport police station – and assaulting an ex-colleague, has lost his court appeal.
The 23-year-old Bahraini had been previously expelled from the police force and banned from the station’s premises, the court heard.
In June, the High Criminal Court sentenced him to a year in prison after punching and spitting on an on-duty policeman. He took to the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court to contest the verdict, but judges upheld it.
On the day of the incident, he had approached the station, asking to be let into the mosque to sleep, and started a scene when he was told he was not allowed.
He threatened the policeman with a pair of scissors, the court heard. The suspect claimed that the victim insulted his mother.
In a defence memo, the appellant’s attorney tried to plead insanity, claiming that the former police officer could not be held accountable for his actions because of his mental illness.
“My client suffers from psychotic schizophrenia. No criminal responsibility can be assigned to him because of his mental condition,” she argued.
“He has a documented history of mental disorders. The incident had occurred under a disordered state of intense agitation.”
She added that the appellant had not been adhering to regular treatment, which caused his condition to show through.
She asked judges to lower the penalty ‘as much as is possible’ but the appeal was rejected.
The GDN previously reported that the appellant had approached the Bahrain International Airport Police Directorate, asking the guard to be let in.
Since he had been discharged from the force and placed in retirement, the guard ‘forbade him from entering, citing an order banning him’, according to the verdict. He told him to leave, but it was in vain.
The court heard that the Bahraini then sat on the curb and lit a cigarette, which the witnesses suspected contained hashish, and was once again asked to leave.
“The appellant began cursing at the guard and tried to attack him with a large pair of metal scissors, but he dodged it,” the verdict continued.
“Another policeman came and calmed the appellant down, and managed to snatch the scissors from him. He sat on the chair in front of the station’s gate, but the guard told him to leave.
“The appellant once again refused, and the policeman was struck by a punch to his left eye, so he brought the appellant to the ground. The 23-year-old Bahraini hit the policeman randomly, injuring his wrist and knee before eventually being arrested.”
Earlier that April day, the guard’s supervisor received a call from the suspect asking him who was on duty that morning.
He recounted that he did not provide any information and immediately ended the call, but the suspect called him again, threatening to come to the directorate’s building, saying: “Prepare all your weapons, prepare the detention room!”
The shift commander called the guard, who was later involved in the tussle, telling him not to allow the appellant into the station as he was no longer an Interior Ministry employee.
Meanwhile, a security footage showed the ex-policeman speaking to the victim in a provocative way, pointing and moving ‘unnaturally’, as summarised by the Public Prosecution.
At the initial trial, the suspect’s mother came to court to plead her son’s innocence, claiming that he had no control over his actions as he was a psychiatric patient.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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