Dubai: A jobless man will be jailed for three months for using someone else’s passport that he had purchased for Dh700 to be able to travel back home.
Officials stopped the 35-year-old Pakistani man at the passport control section when he tried to exit the country using someone else’s passport in April.
Once the passport officer discovered the discrepancy in the photo of the true holder of the passport and that of the person who was carrying it, the suspect was barred from travelling through the Dubai International Airport.
Upon checking on the personal records of the original passport holder and that of the suspect, it was found out that the travel papers were authentic and not forged.
On Monday, the Dubai Court of First Instance convicted the Pakistani defendant of using a genuine passport and impersonating the identity of the passport’s true holder.
Presiding judge Urfan Omar said the accused, who pleaded guilty, will be deported.
“I purchased the passport to be able to fly home,” he told presiding judge Omar in court.
When showed a photocopy of the passport that he had been accused of using, he admitted that it was the same travel document.
When questioned by prosecutors, the defendant said he could not travel to Pakistan because he did not have a passport.
“I contacted a countryman who sold me his passport for Dh700 to be able to fly back home. The passport that I purchased had a legal residency and it is an original document. Once the passport controller discovered that the passport was not mine, he stopped me and banned me from travelling,” he said.
The primary ruling remains subject to appeal within 15 days.
