Bahrain’s law remains offline on cyber abuse Legal thesis exposes alarming ‘gap’ in Bahrain’s response to growing online threats

TDT | Manama

Email: mail@newsofbahrain.com

Bahrain’s legal code does not contain a separate clause for threats made online, despite their spread and ease of execution, according to a legal study by lawyer Taqi Hussain.

In a thesis submitted for his Master’s degree in Law, Taqi examined how threats issued through electronic means are handled under Bahraini law.

He found that rather than treating the matter as its own offence, the law groups it under general threat provisions.

Approach

This approach, he argues, may fall short of what is needed in an age of encrypted messaging and anonymous accounts.

The thesis, titled ‘Criminal Liability for the Crime of Threat via Electronic Means under Bahraini Legislation – A Comparative Study’, weighs Bahrain’s laws against those of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

It applies both an analytical lens and legal comparison to probe how far existing texts meet the challenge.

According to the study, electronic threats are used to bend someone’s will.

Fear

They are meant to force a person into doing or not doing something under pressure of fear.

Unlike physical threats, they can be made silently, without confrontation, and with minimal effort.

Tracing the source is rarely straightforward. The study warns that the mix of digital tools and cross-border reach makes pinning down culprits no easy feat.

The research found disagreement among legal scholars about how such threats should be classed.

Question of harm

Some treat them as a question of harm. Others say they amount to risk.

Either way, the current wording in Bahrain’s laws may not leave courts much room to move.

Among the study’s suggestions are drawing up a clearer legal clause specific to threats made online, exploring alternative punishments to deter the crime, setting up specialised digital evidence units and working more closely with other countries to track those who hide behind screens abroad.