Construction worker cleared of on-site murder

The incident happened in October last year

A drilling machine operator accused of deliberately crushing a worker to death with a drilling machine on a construction site in Bahrain was yesterday cleared of murder by Bahrain's High Criminal Court.

The defendant may still face criminal charges for the accidental death which occurred in October last year at the Tubli flyover project, currently under construction by Nass Contracting.

In court the prosecution alleged that the 31-year-old drilling machine operator for Keller piling contractors, deliberately rammed and killed a 32-year-old JCB digger operator for Al Haidariya Heavy Equipment Hiring.

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The pair was reportedly involved in a heated argument over a minor accident between their vehicles moments before.

However a project manager, who also works for Keller, told the court that although he arrived on the scene after the incident, he was sure Sebastian’s death was not deliberate due to the positioning of the vehicles.

Defence lawyer Fatima Al Hawaj, who cross-examined the project manager, argued that her client was charged with premeditated murder because witnesses claimed his drilling machine made a full turn, thereby hitting the JCB digger and crushing the operator.

But using the project manager’s testimony she claimed this was impossible because the JCB could only make a 90-degree turn.

"The JCB needs to dig holes 2.5m apart and every time he digs a new hole he has to change the drilling nose to dig a new hole," she said according to a Gulf Daily News report.

"In this incident, the vehicles were less than 2m away, but according to the law they are supposed to be 5m apart.

“The vehicle [the victim] was in was directly behind the operator's and there is no way he could see the vehicle because the JCB does not have any back windows.

“The operator could not see how close he was to the other vehicle when he made that 90 degree turn."

Al Hawaj requested the court to release the suspect as he has been in jail for a year, but judges refused and adjourned the trial until January 4 for the final defence statement.

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