.jpg?20260326')
Two ‘highwaymen’ who stopped a random pedestrian on the street to steal his passport, and then fled in a stolen car, have been sentenced to three years in prison.
One of the two defendants is a career criminal, according to court documents, and was previously convicted of theft, drugs, dishonesty and intentional destruction of property.
The High Criminal Court had tried the 36-year-old Bahraini as a ‘repeat offender’, having earlier been jailed for stealing items worth BD10,000.
Prosecutors charged the ex-convict with stealing personal identification documents on a public road through force, while his 22-year-old Bahraini accomplice was accused of acting as his sentry.
The two men reportedly drove away in a vehicle whose licence plate they had illegally swapped before pulling the minor heist.
The 50-year-old Pakistani victim earlier testified about the incident and said he was walking home with a friend when a black vehicle approached them.
“There were two men inside the car, the first defendant stepped out of the vehicle and asked me to produce my passport, which had BD25 and my CPR card inside it,” the expat said.
“He pulled it out of my hand, then pushed me, causing me to fall to the ground, and then both men drove away.”
Upon receiving a report about the incident, a policeman was tasked to investigate the case, and through a series of clues was able to identify the culprits.
“When I went to the crime scene, I noticed that there were security cameras in the location and so I obtained footage of the incident,” the officer told the Public Prosecution.
“The video showed the first defendant assaulting the victim. The car’s licence plate was caught in the footage as well and we ran the number in our system.
“It appeared that the vehicle was flagged as stolen.
“Following a search, the vehicle was found in Buhair and we learned that the defendants had removed the car’s original licence plate and replaced it with another.
“The stolen items – the CPR card and the witness’s passport – were recovered from the car.”
After receiving assistance from Central Investigation Department experts, the suspects were identified and it turned out that the 22-year-old was already in police custody following accusations in another case.
He reportedly used similar techniques to commit another crime, for which he was arrested by the Northern Governorate Police Directorate.
The defendants were summoned and the 22-year-old admitted to the charges, claiming that he did indeed watch out for his accomplice as he committed the crime, and ran away with him after the incident.
He also admitted stealing the car, which he used to commit another crime, although the details of the accusations were not stated in the case files.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
&uuid=(email))