Man 'forged passport' to join police

DUBAI // A Dubai man secured a job as a police officer by using a forged Emirati passport, a court was told yesterday.

HA, a 27-year-old warrant officer, appeared at the Dubai Criminal Court of First Instance charged with forging official documents.

Court records show that HA confessed to police and prosecutors that he applied with a forged Emirati passport to Dubai Police in 2005, which led to a job the following year.

A letter from the Ministry of Interior presented in court by the public prosecutor shows that HA's Emirati citizenship was rescinded on May 12, 2002. His passport and citizenship documents were confiscated on September 11, 2002.

But in 2005, HA applied for a job at Dubai Police and presented a copy of his annulled UAE passport, claiming he was a citizen, prosecutors say.

"I copied the passport copy and cut out the expiry date of the passport and replaced with an expiry date of another passport copy that I acquired from a friend," HA said in his written confession.

In 2008, however, two years after HA started work with Dubai Police, a presidential order was issued reinstating his citizenship.

When HA presented his application for citizenship to the Ministry of Interior in 2008, he was asked to attach employment documents.

The deputy director of human resources at Dubai Police told prosecutors that in November 2009, the ministry asked for an investigation into the validity of HA's application.

"It was revealed that he was employed fraudulently with us during the period where his passport was confiscated and he confessed to us the forgery," the deputy human resources director said.

HA is being tried as a citizen of the Comoros Islands and not as an Emirati.

The court will issue a verdict on January 18.

amustafa@thenational.ae