Yemenis arrested with fake passports
Defence lawyers in the case involving the four Yemenis standing trial for possessing fake passports, have hinted of filing for no case in respect of the charges.
The accused persons are Esmail Yahya Zeyad aka Evra Allerson; Waleed Ahmed Yahya aka Debuchya Allard; Eissa Yahya Amer – all students – and Gaafar Eissa Yahya Amer aka Ciro Carlos, businessman.
Dominic Owusu Sekeyre believes his clients have no case to answer.
This was after the prosecution, led by ASP Stephen Adjei, had presented Detective Chief Superintendent Abalu-Ba Baba, a colleague of the substantive investigator in the case, on behalf of Chief Inspector Paul Mahama who was indisposed.
D/Chief Supt. Baba, who tendered the investigation caution statements of the accused persons, said he got to know them when a case of fake visa was brought to the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) for investigation by the Immigration Service.
He told the court presided over by Aboagye Tandoh, that the accused persons were said to have entered the country with fake visas.
The police chief indicated that it was revealed during investigation that three of the accused persons had French passports.
He said a security outfit wrote to the French embassy in respect of the passports and the accused were subsequently charged.
The prosecution witness said Eissa Yahya Amer and the three others were charged for possessing emergency visas.
D/Chief Supt. Baba, responding to a cross-examination by Mr Owusu Sekeyre, said he was not aware that Yahya Amer arrived in Ghana without an entry visa.
Mr Owusu Sekeyre insisted that the accused persons were not a security threat to the country.
Hearing continues on March 9, 2016.
According to the prosecution, the four, on November 24, 2015 forged official document being the Republic of France Passport Number 04417928.
They are facing an additional charge of possessing fake Emergency Entry Visa.
. The accused persons were arrested by the Bureau of National Investigations (BNI) at the Kotoka International Airport in Accra last year with different names in their French passports onboard Ethiopian Airline Flight ET 920.
Whiles undergoing immigration arrival procedures, Evra Allerson, Ciro Carlos and Debuchya were found with French passports with different names.
A further search on them revealed that all the accused persons had Yemen passports. When the French passports with different names were examined they were found to be fake.
When they were quizzed they mentioned one Abdulai Mohammed in Yemen as the one who secured them the French passports and gave them a phone number to call a certain Mohammed in Ghana on arrival.
Accused persons were to transit in Ghana and continue to France and to Istanbul in Turkey.
A further examination of their Yemen passports indicated that Allerson and Carlos had travelled several times to Djibouti before their trip to Ghana.
The accused persons have all denied the offence.
