Visitor charged with forging documents

Dubai: A random immigration inspection landed a visitor in court for forging a passport and using it to process a visit visa and a driving licence.

Court records said immigration inspectors arrested the 18-year-old Somali visitor in the Naif area during a random search for violators of the Entry and Residency Law.

The defendant, A.O., pleaded guilty to forging a passport and using it to enter the country and to apply for a driving licence when he appeared before the Dubai Court of First Instance yesterday.

He was also charged with using the fake passport to apply for a residency visa and with pretending to be someone else during an administrative interrogation at the Department of Naturalisation and Residency when he applied for a visa, and of illegally entering the country.

An immigration inspector who stopped the suspect in Naif, testified: "When I asked him about his identity, residency and sponsor he handed me his driver's licence which bore the name A.B., and a photocopy of a valid residence permit which carried the same name. Surprisingly, he said he didn't know anything about his sponsor and confessed that his real name was A.O."

The inspector said the suspect told him he paid Dh6,000 to his friend who agreed to sponsor him as his father. The court will pass a verdict soon.