Israeli Arrested in Morocco Passport Fraud Scheme, Paid $7,500 for Fake Documents

J.T, an Israeli of Palestinian origin, is one of the 26 defendants currently in pre-trial detention. He admitted to having paid a sum of $7,500 to Ali M. -another detainee in this case- in order to obtain Moroccan nationality, a passport and an identity card, reports the newspaper Al Ahdath Al Maghrebia.

Questioned by the public prosecutor’s representative, he hinted that his "contact" had shown him photocopies of Moroccan passports he had been able to obtain for Israelis. Subsequently, the Israeli pleaded guilty to the charges against him: forgery of official documents and corruption.

He also stated that he had never been to a court, a civil registry office, or a public administration office to file a naturalization application. When his "contact" told him that the documents were available, he had only gone to a police station to collect his national identity card and passport.

Last March, the National Brigade of the Judicial Police (BNPJ) had dismantled a network of forgery of official documents. This network allowed Israelis who are not originally from Morocco to obtain citizenship, identity card and passport of the Kingdom for 7,000 or even only 5,000 dollars.