Two Iranians Arrested in Nairobi with Fake Israeli Passports

Two Iranians in their early 20s were this week arrested in Nairobi, Kenya, while trying to use altered Israeli passports to board a flight to Brussels. The two, a man and a woman, were booked to fly to Brussels and then on to Israel. They went by the names of Adi and Avshalom which were not true since they changed the pictures on the passports.

The two Iranians are currently held at JKIA police station where they are being questioned by a combined team of Israeli and Kenyan intelligence officials. It is not clear why they were flying to Israel but the information of the arrested was quickly shared between Kenya and Israeli embassy in Nairobi resulting in quick action from the Jewish state.

Kenyan immigration contacted the Israeli immigration authority, which found that the passports were legitimate but had been lost or stolen abroad, with the original photos replaced.

The arrest was necessitated by the recent introduction of the biometric passport verification system at the Kenyan border points. A biometric passport requires fingerprints of the two index fingers, and a picture of a person’s facial features.