Seven year jail for murder bid on wife upheld

Manama : The First High Criminal Court of Appeal has upheld the seven-year jail sentence handed down to a Bahraini man who attempted to murder his wife using an axe.

The man, who was sentenced on February 20 this year, appealed against the court’s decision seeking a lighter sentence. The court rejected his petition and upheld the previous verdict on Tuesday.

As reported earlier, the man beat his Arab wife using an axe and threw her from the third-floor balcony of their home in May last year. The woman fell onto the street in Bilad Al Qadeem area, few kilometres to the west of Manama, and miraculously survived the fall. The man also burnt her face with acid.

Almost one year later, the woman has partially recovered from the incident and will undergo more plastic surgeries to cover some of the scars on different parts of her body, as confirmed by her lawyer Fatima Bin Rajab.

Bin Rajab explained to DT News that the victim also submitted a petition to the Public Prosecution, along with the husband’s appeal, requesting the court to not lighten his sentence and apply a tougher punishment if possible.

“The couple is still married and we are now waiting for the decision of the Sharia Court (Jaffari Division), which is supposed to issue its verdict in the divorce case filed by the woman earlier on May 7,” BinRajab told.

The lawyer also confirmed that the woman won the custody of her two children, 10 and 12-year old sons, and was granted residency in the Kingdom to look after them. The court ordered the husband to hand over all legal documents of the children to their mother, including their passports, birth certificates and identity cards.