Arab woman gets 3 months behind bars in fraud case

Mohammed Yaseen, Staff Reporter

The Dubai Court of Misdemeanour sentenced an Arab woman to three months in jail to be followed by deportation for attempting to travel to Switzerland via Dubai International Airport with a French passport belonging to a woman who looked like her before she was caught by a passport control officer.

The verdict was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The case dates back to October last year when a passport control officer suspected a passport that belonged to a woman seeking to travel to Switzerland via Dubai International Airport.

The officer stated that when he enquired from the woman about the seals on her passport, she admitted that the passport did not belong to her.

The incident was reported to the airport police and the woman was taken for interrogation.

The woman admitted that she obtained the passport from a person in an Arab country for $400, adding that she was in the dark about the forged seals on the passport and that the photo belonged to a woman who looked like her.

She also admitted that she entered the UAE on a visit visa and tried to travel to Europe that way.