Jail and Dh150,000 fine for tourist who tried to fly out of Dubai on fake passport

Man arrested after immigration officers spot forged papers

A Dubai court has granted a retrial to an Emirati man who was convicted of causing his friend’s death in a Shisha fire. AFP

A tourist who forged a French passport and a boarding pass to board a flight to Italy from Dubai was jailed for six months.

Dubai Criminal Court also ordered the Moroccan, 25, to pay a fine of Dh150,000.

He was convicted of forging the passport, boarding pass and exit/entry stamps to board an Emirates flight to Rome on January 17, 2021.

Judges were told he paid Dh12,957 to a man in Turkey in March 2020 for a fake passport, which was shipped to his Dubai address.

“I was trying to find better living conditions in Italy and it's very hard to get their visa as a Moroccan citizen,” he told the judges.

The man was arrested after immigration officers spotted the forged papers.

“I was checking travellers’ documents and it was very obvious his passport was fake,” a security guard at Dubai International Airport said.

“The Dubai exit/entry stamps were clearly forged.”

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

He was referred to court where he was found guilty on all three counts. He will be deported after serving his prison term.