Manama : The Deputy Chief Prosecutor of the Financial Crimes and Money Laundering Prosecution stated that the High Criminal Court sentenced defendants to prison terms of up to 20 years and fined them a total of BD40,000 in three separate cases involving the falsification of official electronic records and the deliberate entry of incorrect data into the electronic system of the Ministry of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Waqf.
The cases came to light when the Public Prosecution identified suspicions of the aforementioned offences while investigating a number of complaints referred to it. It traced the suspicions to verify their validity, establish the circumstances and details surrounding them, and determine their scope and purpose. The Public Prosecution examined the case documents, heard statements from the victims and specialist witnesses, and contacted telecommunications companies to identify the users of the telephone numbers involved in the cases. An examination of the Ministry’s electronic system also established that notification messages concerning the applications had been sent to the telephone numbers entered by the first defendant, rather than to the victims.
The investigations established that the first defendant committed three separate offences, one of them with the assistance of the second defendant. The offences involved submitting claims for financial entitlements and debts owed by 35 individuals. To complete the procedures, the first defendant deliberately entered incorrect data concerning them into the Ministry’s electronic system by recording, in the applications submitted through the system, two telephone numbers belonging to him and one telephone number belonging to the second defendant, to prevent the individuals from becoming aware that such procedures had been initiated against them and depriving them of the opportunity to respond to the claims.
Based on the evidence obtained during the investigations confirming the commission of the offences attributed to the two defendants, they were questioned regarding the charges against them and referred to the competent High Criminal Court, which issued the aforementioned verdicts.
