Man loses final appeal in kidnapping, torture case

TDT | Manama

A Bahraini man, who was convicted of abduction and torture, yesterday lost his final appeal against his seven-year imprisonment sentence before the Court of Cassation. The appellant was among three other defendants who kidnapped a Bahraini man from the Northern Governorate in 2018, tortured him, forced him to confess that he was a police informant and filmed and published the confession online.

They were all sentenced to seven years in jail by the High Criminal Court. The four were said to have committed their crime after they suspected the victim to be a police informant.

They reportedly filmed him confessing that he was helping police officers in identifying rioters and they published the footage online. According to case details, the fourth defendant was the one who ordered the victim’s abduction.

“I instructed the first defendant to kidnap him, and he was assisted by the second and third defendants,” the fourth defendant said during interrogations. The trio spotted the victim in Shahrakan village near Hamad Town, where they pounced on him and dragged him into a vehicle.

“We held him and covered his face and pushed him into the car,” the first defendant revealed to police officers, adding: “We took him to a room in Dar Kulaib village and we interrogated him while filming the process.

He told us that he was collaborating with police officers and we hit him using a wooden plank on different parts of his body.” As for the victim, he said in the interrogation: “They threatened me that they would hurt me if I had told anything to the police.

They returned me to the same area, in which they kidnapped me from and they kicked me out the car.” The event took place on January 31, 2018, and the defendants were nabbed after investigations identified their involvement. They were charged with kidnapping and assaulting their victim as well as filming him.