An insurance clerk, who hit policemen with a metal wheel wrench then took off his underwear to taunt them, has been sentenced to two years in jail.
The High Criminal Court convicted the 41-year-old on several counts of assaulting and disrespecting public security officers, although the assaults did not lead to any serious or long-lasting injuries.
Police had been despatched to the Bahraini man’s house in Sanad to arrest him, after his sister reported him for domestic violence. There was at least one arrest warrant already out for him, the court heard.
On top of assault, he was found guilty of insulting a civil servant in public in the line of duty, obstructing officers of the law, purposefully damaging Interior Ministry property and committing an obscene action in public.
According to the officer who was assaulted, the policeman and his partner received a despatch about the defendant, and went to his house to arrest him.
“We saw him behind his house, standing near an old car with its trunk open,” the officer testified. “We informed him of our identity and we asked him for his name.”
According to the officer, the defendant yelled ‘what do you want from me?’ and ran away, to his house and, broke the front door using a metal spanner. A chase ensued, during which he threatened the officers with the wrench.
“When we tried to get hold of him, he smacked me on the head with the wrench, and hit my partner indiscriminately when he came to help me.
“We managed to overpower him, but when we tried to get him into the patrol, he resisted again and laid on the ground. That is when he took off his underwear and clothes.”
The officers asked for reinforcements. The man’s sister brought him a new set of clothes, which he put on, and he was taken away by authorities.
Although the two policemen were left with scratches and bruises all over their body, a medical report stated that the injuries were mild and had no impact on the officers’ long-term well-being.
Several photographs of the policemen post-attack were attached in the court files. One of the images showed an officer with a blood-stained collar, and the other had a red mark on his head from the assault.
During the trial, the man denied charges, while his defence argued that he could not be held responsible for his actions as he had been in a ‘fugue state of rage’ when he committed his actions.
Lawyers also claimed that the witnesses were merely repeating other witnesses’ statements, and were not providing genuine recollections to the prosecution, but their arguments failed to sway the court.
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