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A court has rejected the objection of an unemployed father of three who was found guilty of possessing a counterfeit 500 Saudi riyal note.
In April, the High Criminal Court sentenced the 48-year-old Bahraini to three years in prison, and fined him BD500 for ‘intending to circulate the note as genuine currency’.
The East Sitra resident, who had worked as a bus driver, lodged an objection to the ruling based on a technicality, which granted him another chance to defend himself.
However, judges chose to uphold the initial ruling.
The forged banknote was discovered by chance after the defendant was arrested on suspicion of possessing narcotics. It was found among his personal belongings.
During Public Prosecution proceedings, the defendant denied the charge, claiming that the note had been given to him by a passenger, and that he had accepted it out of his own ‘foolishness’. He alleged that the customer he was driving handed him the 500 Saudi riyal note, worth about BD50, and requested BD30 in change.
A forensic expert told the court that the counterfeit note was of a ‘decent’ quality and could easily deceive an ordinary person into believing it was genuine. He added that the note purported to have been issued by the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority.
According to the investigation, the forged currency had been produced by scanning legitimate banknotes and reproducing them using a printer.
A Central Investigation Department (CID) policeman also testified that the note was fake.
Court documents showed that the defendant had previously faced charges related to counterfeit currency, involving the same offence for which he was currently standing trial.
He was also sentenced to three months in prison and fined BD100 for possessing narcotics.
Possessing a forged form of currency is a felony, outlawed by Articles 262 and 263 of the Bahrain Penal Code. It specifically criminalises ‘any person who imitates, forges or counterfeits in any manner whatsoever any currency notes or coins’ that are in circulation in Bahrain with the intent of using or trading in them’.
Since the Saudi riyal is widely accepted as a form of payment in Bahrain, the law applies. Distributing or possessing the forged currency is also illegal.
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