Three arrested at Paphos airport for forged documents, impersonation

Police arrested two people who tried to depart from Paphos airport last Friday and Saturday with forged  documents, while a third person was also arrested for illegal trafficking of third country nationals into the Republic.

Paphos police spokesperson Michalis Nicolaou said on Monday that last Friday a man presented himself at Paphos airport for departure to France with a Belgian identity card which was genuine, however, the person depicted did not correspond to the person travelling. When interrogated, the passenger admitted he was a 27-year-old citizen of an African country, while further checks revealed he was a political asylum seeker. The man was charged for the crime of impersonation and placed under house arrest for three days.

In a second case on Saturday at around 5pm a man presented himself at Paphos airport for a flight bound for Italy presenting a Danish travel document which raised suspicions of being fake. The suspect confessed to holding a different citizenship, and was determined to be a 19-year-old applicant for political asylum. Upon further investigation, another man, aged 35, was also located at Paphos airport, who, as further questioning established, was the real holder of the Danish passport.

The 35-year-old and the 19-year-old were arrested for the offences of conspiracy to commit a felony, forgery, circulation of false documents and impersonation. In addition, the 35-year-old faces the offence of aiding the illegal entry, transit and illegal trafficking of a third-country national into the territory of the Republic of Cyprus.

Paphos police are continuing investigations.