Dubai Court of Appeal reduces jail term for man who tried to travel with forged passport

Dubai: Dubai Court of Appeal has reduced the jail term against a visitor who tried to board a flight from Dubai to Rome, using a forged French passport. The 25-year-old man was arrested at Dubai International Airport after an Emirates airline employee caught his forged passport.

The Dubai Court of First Instance had sentenced the defendant to six months in jail, to be followed by deportation. The Appeals Court later reduced the jail sentence to three months. The court has additionally ordered the defendant to pay a fine of Dh150,000.

In January this year, an Emirates airline employee at Dubai airport was verifying the travel documents of passengers boarding a flight from Dubai to Rome, when the defendant showed his fake French passport. “He showed his electronic boarding pass and French passport. I noticed the fake stamps of entry into and exit from Dubai. I asked him for his French ID, but he insisted that he only had his French passport,” said the 34-year-old airline employee.

Records showed that the defendant was trying to travel to Europe as he couldn’t get a visa on his Moroccan passport. The defendant later admitted that he had bought the fake passport for 3,000 euros (Dh13,000) to enter Italy.

He had arrived in the UAE using his Moroccan passport and the fake French passport was later shipped to him in Dubai. He managed to get an electronic boarding pass using the French passport on the self-checkin machines at Dubai airport.

According to records, the defendant cleared Passport Control by getting his Moroccan passport stamped to leave the country. He then went to the boarding gate and showed his fake French passport with the boarding pass, but the alert airline employee foiled his attempt.

He admitted to forging the entry and exit stamps on the French passport.