A fiery female airline passenger has been sentenced to two years in prison after strutting past security in Bahrain, refusing to be searched and assaulting airport personnel.
The 36-year-old Kuwaiti was also fined BD1,000, having been found guilty of possessing hashish for personal use.
The High Criminal Court ordered that she be permanently deported after completing her sentence.
The uppity airline passenger reportedly demanded: ‘I want to travel back to Kuwait!’ and started screaming obscenities while belittling Bahraini security, believing she was ‘above’ being searched, the court heard.
Judges convicted her of assaulting public security officers – a policewoman and a policeman – while they were performing their duties.
She was also convicted of publicly disrespecting four police officers and hurling baseless insults at them in a way that harmed their reputation.
“I was working in airport security when the defendant passed through the machine without yielding to secondary scanning,” a policewoman earlier told the Public Prosecution. “I went to her to guide her to complete airport security procedures but she totally ignored me and continued walking towards the duty-free market.”
The Bahraini officer then ran after the defendant, and told her to stop, to which the woman responded by brazenly declaring that she would not comply with the instruction, then used obscene words against the officer.
The passenger was taken to the airport’s police station so a report could be filed about the incident.
“In the police office, the defendant was stirring up trouble,” the policewoman added. “When I was about to handcuff her she punched me in the face.”
Other officers were able to get her under control. Another officer recalled how unco-operative the woman was and, when she was asked to show some respect to the police, she stormed out of the office.
She stated that, when the Kuwaiti was returned inside, she spat at the policewomen, kicked them and screamed at them.
Authorities later discovered that the traveller was high on hashish at the time of the unpleasant confrontation, as was evident by her urine test.
Judges sentenced the Kuwaiti woman to a year in prison for the assaulting and insulting public security officers and another year, plus the fine, for the drug offence.
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