Health worker appeals jail term in forgery cases

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

A Ministry of Health employee has appealed a oneyear jail term and a BD1,000 fine for forging an official certificate used to recommend a man’s retirement.

The High Criminal Court of Appeal is due to give its ruling on 29 September 2025.

Case papers state that in March this year the defendant, a medical services assistant with the ministry’s medical commissions, made a false certificate in the style of those commissions and attributed it to them.

Retirement

The document asserted that the man had been examined, was medically incapacitated and was entitled to be referred to retirement, which was untrue.

According to the file, she completed a beneficiary form saying the medical-incapacity provisions applied to his case and that he was retired after he stopped attending work.

She then printed a genuine certificate, lifted the physicians’ signatures from it, placed them on the false one, photographed the forgery on her phone and used it in full knowledge of its falsity.

The papers add that she uploaded the forged certificate through the ministry’s electronic system, sent it from her phone to her email address, and forwarded it to the Social Insurance Organisation with a note stating that the medical commission decision was attached.

Wrong data

By doing so, she entered wrong data into the ministry’s system in a way that made it appear correct.

The Public Prosecution received a report from the Ministry of Health alleging that a staff member had forged a certificate for a reviewer, entered it into the ministry’s system and sent it to the Social Insurance Organisation for retirement approval and pension payment.

Handwriting

Statements were taken from employees at the ministry and the Social Insurance Organisation, and a forgery expert at the Forensic Evidence Directorate examined the certificate and compared it with the defendant’s handwriting.

The expert found the document to be forged and attributed the act to her.

When questioned, she admitted forging the certificate. She was remanded in custody pending investigation.

The appeal verdict is listed for 29 September 2025.