Dubai: A visitor was sentenced to three months in jail for forging entry and exit stamps on seven Moroccan passports and two Saudi passports.
The Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the 20-year-old Pakistani defendant, M.W., of forgery. The defendant denied the charge, claiming he was framed.
“I was doing a favour to a passenger, whom I met on the plane while flying to Dubai. He claimed that he did not have a visa to enter Dubai and begged me to take the documents and hand them over to another person,” M.W. told the court when he defended himself.
Presiding judge Ezzat Abdul Lat said the forged documents will be confiscated.
Court records said the accused was handed a lenient punishment. When asked by the judge why he carried the forged travel documents, M.W. contended: “I did not know they were passports. The man, named Urfan, set me up. I was framed and I did not know they were forged documents. He gave me a paper envelope and I did not look to check. When I reached the counter at the airport, I was told the passports were forged.”
When asked why he agreed to carry them, the accused explained that the passenger who sat beside him told him that he needed to deliver those documents but he was unable to enter Dubai without a visa.
“That’s why I agreed to do it as a favour,” he told presiding judge Abdul Lat.
A customs inspector at Dubai International Airport said M.W. was stopped carrying the suspected passports in March.
“He arrived at the scanner and placed his two bags to be scanned. We discovered a stack of documents in the bags. On opening the bag, we discovered nine passports that were all stamped with the airport’s exit and entry stamps. We suspected the passports were forged and confined the defendant. During questioning, he claimed he obtained the passports from Pakistan and was supposed to deliver them to a person in Dubai,” the inspector claimed. The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 13 days.
