Company accuses employee of embezzlement to trap dad

A Bahrain-based private company has accused one of its expat employees of embezzling over BD43,000 to pressure his father, who’s also an employee there, to pay off his debts. This has been revealed as the Third High Criminal Court of Appeal yesterday acquitted the defendant, who’s an Asian national, as it dismissed the evidence and allegations of the company.

The defendant’s lawyer, Zainab Sabt, explained that her client and his father worked for an electrical appliances company in Muharraq Governorate and that the father had borrowed BD43,800 from the company and signed indebtedness bonds proving the same. Ms Sabt said the company initially lodged a complaint against the father accusing him of refusing to pay the amounts he borrowed. The lawyer also said that when the father attempted to travel abroad, the company filed a case against the son accusing him of embezzling the same amount mentioned in the case it previously filed against the father.

Ms Sabt claimed that this was to take revenge against the father’s attempt to leave the country and to pressure him so he would pay the amount he owed. In her defence, Ms Sabt provided the judges with the bond signed by the father showing that he borrowed the same amount her client was accused of embezzling. She demanded that the case is referred to an auditor to prove the allegations of the company. The lawyer also pointed out that the testimonies of the witnesses, who are current employees of the company, wouldn’t be against their employer, in addition, that they haven’t seen the defendant embezzling the said amount.    The defendant was previously acquitted by the High Criminal Court before, but the Public Prosecution appealed against the verdict. However, the court studied the case once again and decided yesterday to uphold the defendant’s acquittal verdict.