Penalty for perjury

TDT | Manama

The Daily Tribune - www.newsofbahrain.com

The Court of Cassation has upheld a two-year prison sentence for two lawyers who were found guilty of perjury.

The lawyers had falsely sworn under oath in a commercial dispute case, claiming to have performed services they did not, in order to claim a total of BD100,000 from the victim.

The Court of Appeal had previously ruled that the evidence presented did not support the lawyers’ claims.

It stated that the victim had not authorised them to sell or lease company shares, and the individual employment contract signed between the victim and the first lawyer only stipulated the sale of shares and facilitating the sale process in two companies. However, the first lawyer did not fulfill these obligations.

The Court further noted that there was no evidence to suggest that the victim had entrusted the lawyers with leasing the company shares. And this contradicted the oath they had falsely sworn.

Settlement process

They also claimed to have participated in a settlement process between the victim and a private hospital, despite not playing any role in discussions, signing contracts, or intervening in the settlement.

The court pointed out that the lawyers had sworn that the victim had agreed to pay them BD50,000 each.

However, the evidence showed that the victim had only agreed to pay this amount to the first lawyer, contingent on his successful completion of the share sale facilitation process. However, the first lawyer did not fulfill these obligations and therefore was not entitled to the payment.

The Public Prosecution had charged the lawyers with perjury on March 15, 2020, for falsely swearing under oath before the High Appeals Court, and this led to a ruling in their favour based on this false oath.