Case of Turkish men arrested with fake passports adjourned

The First High Criminal Court adjourned a case involving two Turkish men, who attempted to travel to the United Kingdom using fake passports from Bahrain International Airport to September 23, 2019, to appoint a defence attorney for one of the defendants through Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry. The court also ordered to not release the defendants, who have been in detention for the past few months.  

According to court documents, a female employee of Bahrain Airport Services (BAS) notified the police at the airport when she suspected that the first defendant’s passport was fake. The woman also checked the visa that was printed on the man’s passport and discovered it was also counterfeited. The second suspect was arrested separately, but he was planning to travel on the same flight. A different BAS employee suspected him as his passport had a seven-month visa printed on it.

Further investigation proved that the visa was a fake one and the case was reported to the police. The first defendant told the police that an Iranian man he had met in Turkey helped him with the issuance of the fake passport, adding that the latter advised him to travel to the UK through Bahrain as he claimed that the procedures here were easy and less complicated compared with Turkey. The second defendant told the police a similar story.

The Public Prosecution accused both men of entering wrong data into the system of the General Directorate of Nationality, Passports and Residence Affairs to enter Bahrain. They were also accused of forging passports, in co-operation with an unknown third party, and using fake documents to illegally enter Bahrain.