Bahraini court slaps travel ban on Al-Arab TV loan defaulters

A Bahraini court has barred six employees of the Al-Arab television channel from leaving the country, over claims of unsettled debts.
The travel ban order involved a Saudi broadcaster and five other Arab employees, over outstanding loans they owed to a bank which they took immediately after starting their work at the television channel. The bank filed a lawsuit against them early this month demanding the repayment of the liabilities.
Lawyer Osama Anwar, who was assigned by the Bahraini bank to file the lawsuit, told local media that the court ordered the travel ban against the employees of the channel that went off air. In the lawsuit, the advocate said the legal move was necessitated because the group was expected to leave Bahrain at any time and there were fears that the loans would not be settled. “This might entail the bank losing its entitlements of the remaining payments of the loan agreement,” said the lawyer, noting that the six defendants are still in Bahrain.
Abdullah bin Abdul Malik Al-Asheikh, the Saudi ambassador to Bahrain, said the details of the case date back to the time when the six employees began working for the now-defunct channel. They applied for loans, but after the closure of the satellite channel the bank had fears that the borrowers might leave the country and not repay the liabilities.
One of the six who was banned from travel, a Saudi national, told a local publication that he was appointed to work as a broadcaster with the channel, and he must repay an amount of SR480,000 to the bank. He said the court did not specify a time frame for the six persons to repay the debts, but in case they fail to repay the loan money another lawsuit will be filed to force them to pay. The man confirmed he did not request the intervention of the Saudi Embassy to solve his problem. He said he was assured that if he asked the embassy’s intervention they will no doubt help him.
Al-Arab channel was banned from broadcasting by the Information Affairs Authority of Bahrain for failing to obtain the necessary broadcast licensing.
The Information Affairs Authority said it made all efforts to support the channel and help it complete the technical and administrative requirements for broadcast, “but these requirements were not met.”