Man sentenced in absentia caught after nine years

A Bahraini drug trafficker, who managed to escape after spending nine years in the captivity of Iranian drugs lords, had a shock of his life when he landed in jail after returning to the Kingdom. The man, according to his lawyer Abdulrahman Ghunaim, was unaware of the case registered against him in the kingdom.

His gang was busted in a police operation back in 2009 during an attempt to smuggle 50 kilograms of hashish into the Kingdom from Iran by sea. The Bahraini man was tried in absentia, said lawyer Abdulrahman Ghunaim, who had filed an appeal against the verdict. Ghunaim informed the court that his client was kept as a hostage by the drug lords in Iran to persuade his fellow gang members to smuggle Hashish into Bahrain.