Jail term affirmed for Hajj campaign owner

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

The High Appeals Court upheld the first-instance ruling sentencing the owner of a Hajj campaign to one year in prison for delivering 12 forged permits to pilgrims. The first-instance court had sentenced the campaign owner to one year in prison, setting bail at BD100 to suspend the execution of the sentence.

The court also acquitted the campaign owner of fraud charges, as well as the owner’s son and the administrator, of the charges related to forging and using the permits. The Public Prosecution had charged all defendants, including another individual sentenced abroad, with forging official documents, specifically Hajj permits for the year 1446 H, allegedly issued by the Ministry of Hajj in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

The charges included creating these documents through forgery and entering false information, as they produced these documents resembling valid permits and falsely listed the names of the pilgrims. The defendants, along with the individual sentenced abroad, knowingly used the forged documents by presenting them to the official employees responsible for verifying pilgrims in Saudi Arabia.

Pilgrimage

They also fraudulently obtained cash amounts belonging to 12 individuals by misleading them into believing they could secure valid Hajj permits and allow them to perform the pilgrimage within their licensed campaign, delivering forged permits as if they were genuine, thereby unlawfully appropriating their funds. Additionally, the Public Prosecution charged the first defendant, in his capacity as the licensed contractor, with failing to provide the Supreme Committee for Hajj and Umrah with an accurate list of pilgrims and all obligations he had committed to them, in violation of legal provisions.