Jail for 19-year-old girl for entering disco with juvenile

The Juvenile Court has sentenced a teenager, accused of taking a 12-year-old girl with her to a Manama disco, to two years behind bars. It’s the second time for the girl to receive this jail term as a Lower Criminal Court had earlier handed down the 19-year-old girl two years behind bars for attempting to ‘corrupt a minor’. 

But her conviction was cancelled by the High Criminal Appeals Court, which referred the case for the Juvenile Court to vet on it. A security man serving in the disco was also given two years in prison for allowing the girl to enter the place, and the High Criminal Appeals Court scratched off his sentence as well. 

He was acquitted by the Juvenile Court. Court files revealed that the Bahraini teen was spotted accompanied by the 19-year-old girl at a table along with Gulf men inside the disco. She was caught by a Tourism Inspector, who was there to check if it was complying with the local regulations. 

He informed the police, who arrested her and also captured a security guard, who allowed the 12-year-old girl to enter the disco.  “The mother of the girl left her with me and she travelled to Saudi. I had a date with my boyfriend (one of the Gulf men) and we booked a room in a hotel,” the defendant said. “He invited me to a restaurant in the same hotel, but it was crowded. Hence, we decided to go inside the disco,” she added. The second defendant, however, denied acknowledgment of the girl’s age.