Airport ex-staff’s jail term reduced on plea

Manama: An ex-technician in the Bahrain International Airport has  his jail term reduced on appeal. He was implicated in connection with professional misconduct. He was earlier sentenced to three years, but the Supreme Appeals Court reduced his jail term to only one year. 

The ex-technician was sent for trial on grounds of facilitating illegal entry for two Chinese women into the country. The two women were earlier sentenced to six months behind bars each. The man was brought to trial after one of the Chinese women was captured while roaming around without a stay visa. She was also found later to be on the country’s entry ban list.  This raised questions over the Customs system of the country, as the woman was expelled in 2011. 

It’s said that the woman’s first spell in the country was between November 12, 2009 and July 27, 2011, which is the date she was deported, according to court files. However, no reason was specified for her deportation.  

The police found that the woman’s passport wasn’t stamped upon her arrival back to the country on January 17, 2015, before being arrested on February 19, almost after a month stay. Her name wasn’t also entered in the airport’s entry system.  

“When I was deported, a Chinese man told me he could help me to fly back to Bahrain. He was also banned from entering Bahrain, but he managed to enter without being caught,” the woman said in her statement. “He asked me to pay 10,000 Chinese yen (around BD607), and I transferred it to him, following which he provided me with details of my flight date.”

“He told me that when I reach here a Bahraini man would come to receive me and he would sort out the formalities in the airport. When we landed, a Bahrain man (the ex-technician) approached me and asked about my name. Then he took my passport and asked me to wait. A few minutes later he waved his hands to me to follow him,” she explained.

CCTV cameras installed in the airport showed that the ex-technician man lifting the ribbon set up in the arrival area and allowing the two Chinese women to enter without passing through the check-in counter. He was seen holding three passports.