Two managers at a chain electronics store sentenced to a year in prison for kidnapping an employee after accusing him of stealing cash from the workplace have lodged an appeal against their guilty verdict.
After the High Criminal Court convicted them of keeping the employee captive and using force and violence to gang up on him, they took to the Supreme Criminal Appeals Court.
Judges set April 28 as the date a ruling will be made in the case.
In September last year, the 49-year-old and 26-year-old Bahrainis reportedly beat up a 39-year-old Bangladeshi worker and locked him up in the inner office of the store.
Although the appellants denied the accusations and later claimed that the case had been settled amicably, they were still convicted of the charges.
A medical report noted that the victim’s eighth and ninth ribs on the right side of his chest were dislocated, concluding that the injury was consistent with the attack as narrated by witnesses.
According to the Public Prosecution, the 49-year-old appellant asked the victim to come to the office and then asked for his passport which the victim handed over.
Then, he showed the Bangladeshi clips where ‘he appears to be giving money to two other employees’, claiming that it was evidence he was stealing from the company.
When asked why he did what he did, the victim reportedly said that he was asked to steal at the behest of his brother.
They asked him to hand over his possessions, then the younger appellant assaulted him, added the statement.
The appellants reached out to the victim’s brother, asking him to give back the money, threatening that they would not let his sibling go until he paid up.
However, the 35-year-old Bangladeshi stated he couldn’t be sure he would be able to pay.
According to the victim, the two appellants locked him inside the store office and remained there with him until the next morning. After the ordeal, he was asked to go to his apartment but not leave until he paid up.
During questioning, the younger appellant admitted to the assault, but stated he was following his elder co-appellant’s orders.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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