Bahrain Mirror: The Supreme Appeals Court presided over by judge Mohammad bin Ali Al Khalifa and Naji Abdullah as secretariat commuted the sentence of 7 appellants accused in a case related to forging and receiving bribery in exchange for issuing official documents for cars, stating that they had passed the technical examination, contrary to reality.

The court modified the sentence of an employee in the General Directorate of Traffic (GDT) from 5 years in prison to two. Meanwhile, it commuted a 3-year jail term issued against other 6 to one year.

The Public Prosecution claimed that in 2014 and 2015, the first suspect, being a public sector employee in the GDT, has violated his duties and responsibilities in response to mediation of the second suspect and issued registration forms for vehicles stating that they had passed the technical examination, contrary to reality and forged the technical examination official documents, and thus misused his signature. It also accused the second and third suspects of taking part in the incident through agreeing and helping the first suspect to forge the official document. Moreover, it accused the suspects from the second till the seventh of agreeing and helping the first suspect violates his duties in response to the mediation of the second suspect.

The details of the case came to the surface when a communique from the department of Anti-Corruption Crimes was received stating that investigations of the Traffic department revealed an employee is taking from 100 to 120 Dinars as bribes in exchange for registering several vehicles, without being subjected to the technical examination placed by the GDT. After arresting the accused, he confessed the charges brought against him and admitted that the second suspect had previously brought 15 to 20 cars to the suspect in return for attaining 50 or 100 BD according to the agreement. Besides, the seventh suspect admitted that he registered 2 cars that failed the technical examination, after receiving amounts of money.

Arabic Version