Health Ministry employee jailed for forging Pension report

TDT | Manama

Email : editor@newsofbahrain.com

A Health Ministry employee has lost her appeal and will serve a one-year prison term for forging a medical-committee report that wrongly directed an applicant toward a pension.

The High Court of Appeal upheld the conviction, confirmed a BD1,000 fine, and ordered the confiscation of the forged report and the phone used in the offence. The ruling mirrors the sentence issued by the first-instance court.

Prosecutors said the case began after the Ministry of Health received a complaint. The employee, working in the medical committees unit, created a false statement, entered it into the ministry’s electronic system, and claimed that an applicant had been examined, found medically unfit, and referred for retirement. The document was then sent to the Social Insurance Organisation to process the pension.

Investigators collected statements from ministry and Social Insurance Organisation staff. A forgery expert at the Forensic Evidence Directorate examined the statement and confirmed, through handwriting comparison, that it was forged by the defendant.

When questioned by the Public Prosecution, the employee admitted to forging the report. She was remanded, tried, and initially sentenced, with the judgment later upheld on appeal.