A landlord, who entered a female tenant’s apartment without permission, lost his final appeal at the Cassation Court.
Last year, he was sentenced to a month in prison at the Lower Criminal Court, but upon appeal at the High Criminal Appeals Court, the sentence was replaced with community service.
On the day of the incident, which took place in April 2023, the Bahraini appellant and two others reportedly went into the woman’s apartment without asking first.
Last April, he was found guilty of trespassing, but his two co-defendants were acquitted.
“Our client was convicted even though the accusations against him do not satisfy all the criteria of a crime,” a defence argument written by his lawyer read.
“He entered the apartment as the landlord, with no ill intent, as he thought the tenant was not at home. The contract between them had ended at that time,” the lawyer said.
However, a Lower Criminal Court judge found that the tenant had been given a specific length of time to move out, and that it was not over yet on the day of the incident.
“It doesn’t matter if the defendant is the owner, or if he did not intend to commit the crime,” read the earlier ruling.
After receiving a sentence reduction at the High Criminal Appeals Court, the appellant was still not satisfied, and took to the Cassation Court to attempt to get acquitted, one last time.
“The court believes the victim’s (tenant) statements, and that the incident took place as she recounted it,” read the Cassation verdict. “The appellant’s attempt to injure the reliability of the victim’s testimony has no place in the Cassation Court.”
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