Three jailed in work permits forgery case

TDT | Manama

The First High Criminal Court this week sentenced three Bahrainis, including two sailors, to one year in jail each for their involvement in a case of forgery. The three defendants were found guilty of counterfeiting official documents and submitting them to the Labour Market Regulatory Authority (LMRA), in order to issue additional work permits for expatriate fishermen.

The first defendant was caught in 2017 when an employee at the Agriculture and Marine Resources Affairs at the Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning discovered that the defendant had forged his (the ministry’s employee) signature in an application form and submitted it to the LMRA.

The matter came to light when the LMRA cross-checked a copy of a work permit issuance application with the ministry’s employee. The application was reportedly submitted by the defendant, who was applying for the issuance of three work permits for foreign fishermen. The second and third defendants were detected while submitting similar applications to the LMRA to issue three fishermen work permits.

The employee at the Agriculture and Marine Resources Affairs notified the Public Prosecution, which launched a probe into the matter and heard the statements of all the individuals involved in the case, including the LMRA officials.

The prosecution charged the defendants with forging official documents that are attributed to the the Agriculture and Marine Resources Affairs and entering false information into the electronic system of an official body, the LMRA.