Court acquits man in fake passport case

A Bahraini man convicted of trying to forge passports for a group of Iraqi nationals has been acquitted for lack of evidence. He was earlier given a jail term of three years. Five men were tried in connection with this case, including three Iraqi nationals. The Iraqis were charged with requesting forgery and providing money for bribery. The fifth suspect, a Bahraini, who remains at large was the mastermind behind the crime, according to court documents. The Bahraini defendant who was acquitted told the court the second Bahraini suspect, a 40-year-old security guard said the Iraqis were willing to pay BD100,000 for passports. He claimed he only got involved in order to scam them and take their money. “I had no involvement in the forgery; I only received a picture on WhatsApp which I deleted immediately,” he said.

The second Bahraini suspect met the Iraqis and a deal was struck at BD80,000. The two then travelled to Turkey to get a passport forged which was handed over to the first Bahraini suspect. However, he said he burned it but when the Iraqis got in touch with him he asked for BD10,000 to bribe someone in the Nationality, Passports and Residence Affairs. “I took the money and paid off my loans.” The other suspects denied charges that they had requested fake passports.