Retaliation backfires: Jail sentence for lawyer who tried to frame trainee

TDT | Manama     

The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com

Report by Mohammed Darwish

The Grand Court of Appeal yesterday delivered a decisive ruling in favour of the Public Prosecution’s appeal against a lawyer who had been acquitted of falsely reporting a trainee.

The court sentenced the lawyer to six months in prison for submitting a false report aimed at harming and defaming the trainee.

This case originated from a conflict between the lawyer and the trainee, who was employed at the lawyer’s office.

The contention came about over unpaid wages following the cessation of support from the Labour Fund (Tamkeen).

The aggrieved trainee pursued legal action to claim these unpaid wages, and the court ruled in his favour, instructing the lawyer to pay the outstanding amounts.

In an act of retaliation, the lawyer filed a false report with the Public Prosecution, accusing the trainee of forging an employment contract and passing it off to the Social Insurance Organisation (SIO), as well as forging an experience certificate and submitting it to the Ministry of Justice’s Office of the General Registrar.

Fraudulent Upon thorough investigation, the Public Prosecution discerned the report to be fraudulent.

The lawyer was thus brought up on charges and stood trial, where the court of first instance initially acquitted him.

However, the Public Prosecution contested this decision.

The Grand Court of Appeal overturned the acquittal, sentencing the lawyer to six months’ imprisonment.

The court concluded that the lawyer’s actions were deliberate attempts to damage the trainee’s reputation and constituted a criminal offence.

The Chief of the Appeals Prosecution proclaimed that this verdict serves as an unequivocal warning: the legal system will brook no tolerance for false reporting, and individuals engaging in such deceitful conduct will be held to account with the full weight of the law.