Tourist forged French passport to fly to Italy, Dubai court hears

The man was caught while trying to board an Emirates flight to Rome

A closeup shot shows the facade of the Dubai Courts building during a hearing on April 04, 2010 in the case of a British couple sentenced to a month in jail after being convicted of kissing in public in a restaurant in the Muslim Gulf emirate. The couple's lawyer said the appeals court upheld the one-month prison sentence against the two, named by the British press as Ayman Najafi, 24, a British expat, and tourist Charlotte Lewis, 25. The couple were arrested in November 2009, after they were accused of consuming alcohol and kissing in a restaurant in the trendy Jumeirah Beach Residence neighbourhood.     AFP PHOTO/STR / AFP PHOTO
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A tourist forged a French passport and a boarding pass to board a flight to Italy, Dubai Criminal Court heard.

The Moroccan man, 25, confessed to the crime in court on Sunday.

He said he paid Dh12,957 to a man in Turkey in March 2020 for a fake passport.

“I wanted to fly to Italy to find better living conditions,” he said.

The fake passport was shipped to his accommodation in Dubai.

Judges heard the man was arrested on January 17, 2021, trying to board an Emirates flight to Italy.

“I was double-checking travellers’ documents ahead of their boarding a Dubai-Rome flight when I suspected him of using a fake passport,” a security guard at Dubai International Airport said.

“It was obvious the passport and the Dubai exit/entry stamps were forged.”

The man was caught when the guard asked him for a second form of ID to prove his French nationality.

He was arrested by the police and charged with forging the passport, boarding pass and exit/entry stamps.

A verdict is expected on April 20.