.jpg?20260326')
A man has been sentenced to three years in prison for stealing an Apple Watch from a new friend he met at a nightclub after the latter refused to pay him back for an alcohol run.
The High Criminal Court found the 25-year-old Bahraini guilty of robbery after he made off with the AED2,700 (BD277) timepiece belonging to the Saudi victim.
According to court documents, the defendant snatched the Apple Watch series 7 from the unemployed tourist when he did not agree to reimburse him for drinks he had bought on his behalf.
“I came to Bahrain to visit a nightclub, and while I was there, I met the defendant, and we added each other on Snapchat,” the 24-year-old victim told the Public Prosecution.
“After getting to know each other and speaking for some time, I invited him to my apartment one afternoon in August, and he spent time with me there.
“My fellow Saudi friends joined us after a bit, and they said they wanted to drink, so the defendant went to a liquor store in an industrial area and brought us alcohol.
“We all drank together, and my friends left at 6pm. When they were gone, I got in my car to go back home to Saudi Arabia, when the man accosted me, demanding that I pay up.”
The Bahraini reportedly got in the car with the tourist and asked him BD20, but the motorist stopped at a petrol station and asked him to leave.
Though he persisted at first, the defendant eventually stepped out of the vehicle, but in a moment of distraction managed to pull the Saudi’s watch off his wrist.
Court documents added that the watch-owner pushed at the thief and attempted to get his accessory back, but the man resisted and made off with the loot.
The scuffle was captured by security cameras at the petrol station, and forensic experts found the defendant’s hand and fingerprints on the car door left during the brief struggle.
The defendant was at large when the trial first began, though it is not known whether or not the ruling in the robbery case was made in absentia.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))