The First High Criminal Court of Appeal upheld the ruling of the court of first instance convicting two appellants, aged 35 and 40, sentencing them to three years’ imprisonment for tax evasion, and fining the first defendant BHD 102,711, in addition to obliging him to repay the evaded tax in the same amount, while fining the second defendant BHD 207,044 and ordering him to repay an identical amount representing the evaded tax. The court also sentenced both defendants to three months’ imprisonment for violating the cash disclosure system at customs outlets, ordered their permanent deportation from the Kingdom of Bahrain after serving their sentences, and the confiscation of the seized items. The charges stemmed from their attempt to smuggle four luxury watches concealed in a highly sophisticated manner to avoid detection, with the intent to sell them later. Investigations revealed that the defendants had carried out 182 value-added tax (VAT) refund transactions amounting to a total of BHD 309,755, which were unlawfully obtained. The Tax Evasion Crimes Unit at the Financial Crimes and Money Laundering Prosecution received a report from the National Financial Intelligence Centre, based on a notification from Customs Affairs, regarding the defendants’ attempt to remove luxury watches […]