Four convicts in Jaw prison who were sentenced to life in jail for beating a fellow inmate to death over fruit juice lost their final appeal at Bahrain’s highest court yesterday.
One of the four Bahrainis, a 50-year-old career criminal, died in hospital earlier this month ‘due to lung and kidney problems’ and his case was automatically dismissed by the court.
The Cassation Court yesterday upheld the 25-year sentences of the three remaining murder convicts, aged 27, 31 and 40, one of whom had already once been convicted of murder, and has since become a two-time murderer. The court previously heard that the men attacked victim Yousif Al Khalasi in October 2023 after a brawl broke out during meal time. They chanted ‘finish him, finish him’ inside their shared cell and ultimately delivered on their deadly threats.
Earlier this year, the four were sentenced to an additional three years behind bars after being found guilty of breaking the jaw of a fellow inmate and leaving him with a lifelong disability.
They denied charges of premeditated murder, though the attack was caught on security cameras, and eyewitnesses testified to seeing them drenched in the victim’s blood.
The fight reportedly began when Mr Al Khalasi objected to his cellmate – the man who ultimately led the others to end his life – pouring juice for him and the two started pushing each other.
As the ringleader called his friends – the other defendants – to help him, the victim went to the cell’s TV room to ask for his friend’s help, but the defendants ran after him.
The men reportedly continued beating Mr Al Khalasi long after he lost consciousness or the ability to resist the onslaught, which the Public Prosecution described as a ‘heinous crime’.
They punched and kicked him in his head, face, eyes and mouth. Then, the now-two time murder convict reportedly blocked the entrance to the cell as his three cellmates began their brutal assault. He sat on top of him and pummeled him with punches, the court heard.
Soon, the man became unresponsive, and after four minutes of battering Mr Al Khalasi, a policeman intervened and dispersed the men.
“The victim was bleeding profusely from his mouth and eyes and he wasn’t moving,” the policeman said in his testimony. “I heard one of the suspects mutter ‘we finished him’ and I noticed that his pulse was feeble.”
According to two doctors at the Jaw Prison Clinic, the victim was dead on arrival, and was extremely battered and bloody, suffering severe external and internal bleeding.
A paramedic also previously described the injuries as ‘gruesome and sickening’ during cross-examination, declaring the killing ‘a hideous crime’ unlike any that he had ever witnessed.
The GDN earlier reported that a court-ordered psychiatric evaluation found the Bahrainis fit to stand trial.
In a previous session, a Public Prosecution representative called on the court to issue the maximum possible penalty against the four defendants, stating that the evidence against them was damning.
The prosecutor went on to state that the accused had gone too far in their assault and ‘didn’t quench their thirst for revenge’ until the victim was dead.
Besides the row over juice, another potential motive was brought forth by a police officer and the victim’s mother, who both claimed that the attackers were ‘jealous of the victim’s athletic prowess’.
zainab@gdnmedia.bh
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