When whistleblowers turned wrongdoers

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

In a surprising twist, two lawyers who initially exposed an employer for defrauding the labour ministry with forged documents have found themselves behind bars for attempting to use the same documents to secure unwarranted benefits.

In the original case, the employer received a six-month prison sentence and a fine of 500 Bahraini dinars from the Lower Criminal Court for inflating the victim’s salary in documents submitted to the Labour Fund in order to pocket higher benefits.

Now, both the victim and her lawyer, who brought this forgery to light, have also been sentenced to prison after attempting to file another case claiming unpaid salary against the same employer using the confiscated documents.

The Lower Criminal Court handed them a threemonth suspended sentence and ordered the confiscation of the forged document.

According to court records, the victim filed the forgery case against her employer in 2024, alleging that he had altered her contract to inflate her monthly salary from 300 Bahraini dinars to 600 Bahraini dinars.

She claimed this was done to secure higher benefits from the Labour Fund, Tamkeen, asserting that the contract submitted to the Ministry of Labour bore a forged signature and was dated August 25, 2021.

The Cybercrime Prosecution investigated the complaint. During the investigation, the victim testified that she was asked to sign the last page of the contract on August 25, 2021, by her employer in his office, where her monthly salary was indicated as 300 Bahraini dinars.

However, she later discovered that her salary had been recorded as 600 Bahraini dinars in the documents submitted to the Ministry of Labour.

Based on the evidence presented, the Lower Criminal Court sentenced the employer to six months in jail and imposed a fine of 500 Bahraini dinars. However, more than four months later, the woman decided to file a new civil lawsuit, claiming she was owed 600 Bahraini dinars per month based on the same contract she had previously alleged was forged.

The High Labour Court rejected her claim after reviewing the case, noting that the second lawyer, who had also represented her in the criminal case, submitted the same contract that had been declared forged and confiscated by the court.

The court deemed this action an additional offense, considering the attorney’s knowledge of the forgery and her involvement in the earlier criminal proceedings. Ultimately, the High Civil Court dismissed the claimant’s case, stating that she had already received her entitled payments.

Consequently, the matter was referred back to the Lower Criminal Court for attempting to use a forged contract to gain undeserved labour benefits.