Bahrain : Head of International Cooperation Section in the Attorney General’s Office stated that the UK competent judicial authority sought judicial assistance to hear the statements of a Bahraini citizen via video conferencing, as a witness in the murder of a Gulf national, whose case is being investigated by the judicial authority in Britain.
After securing the approval of the High Criminal Court, the Office of International Cooperation carried out the request for assistance in coordination with the British Embassy and the aforementioned witness.
The Office prepared the necessary technical means, and enabled the witness to give his testimony via video link before the competent court in the United Kingdom, in the presence of the accused,the Defence and Public Prosecution Authority.
The witness stated that as he was leaving a restaurant in London with his friend (the victim), two people came in their way with the intention of stealing.
He added that his friend who was stabbed in the chest by one of the aggressors continued to resist until he fell to the ground. The witness who was confronting the second aggressor was also stabbed.
The implementation of the remote judicial assistance request came in line with the powers stipulated in Law No. (7) of 2020 amending some provisions of the Code of Criminal Procedure by authorizing the investigation through etheric broadcasting at all stages of the criminal case.
It is also in line with the law provisions that authorize the use of modern technology in the collection of verbal evidence, which emerges mainly in investigations or trials that are conducted in a country other than the one in which the witness is present, as well as the material impediment arises in his travel or if the personal impediment prevents him from appearing before the court.
It is worth noting that the Public Prosecution had previously signed in 2016 a memorandum of understanding with its counterpart in the United Kingdom, within the framework of international conventions and treaties to which countries have acceded and in accordance with the requirements of national laws, which take all forms of judicial cooperation to ensure a decisive confrontation with the effects of the crime.
