Iranians caught in India with fake Israeli passports
Couple arrested in Chennai International Airport say they thought documents would help them immigrate to the US
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleLee Gancman is a breaking news editor at The Times of Israel.
Two Iranian nationals were arrested at Chennai International Airport in India on Thursday after attempting to board a flight using fake Israeli passports.
“They had original Iranian passports, but they also had Israeli passports, which resulted in their detention at the airport,” police told local media.
The two are reported to be a married Iranian couple who had been living in India for the past several years and intended to use the fake passports to immigrate to the United States.
When arrested, they had just arrived on a domestic flight from Goa, and were trying to board a British Airways flight to the UK.
After being taken into custody, police questioned the two, looking into the possibility of hostile activity.
Preliminary investigations indicated that the woman, aged 35, had been living in the city of Pune for the past 10 years, while the man, 25, had worked for an unspecified number of years in Goa.
It wasn’t the first time Iranians have been caught abroad with forged Israeli travel documents. In 2014, two Iranians were arrested at the airport in Nairobi, Kenya, after attempting to enter the country using fake Israeli passports. They were sentenced under anti-terrorism laws to two years in prison and ordered to pay a large fine.
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