A former Iraqi soldier who fled his country's regime and is seeking asylum here was sentenced to eight months in prison yesterday for having a forged passport. When a Galway publican lodged €4,000 in court, the Iraqi was remanded on bail pending an appeal hearing.
Mohammed Abdallah Jabar (29), who lives in a hostel in Galway, claimed he would be shot if he was returned to his native Baghdad. Through an interpreter, the former soldier said he had been a prison officer in Iraq up to five months ago and had fled with inmates during a break-out at one of the country's prisons.
His family had borrowed $5,500 to pay for his passage to Ireland. They were now under pressure to repay the loan in Iraq and the accused had tried to get a social security number here using the forged passport, so that he could either work or claim social welfare payments and send the money home to repay the debt.
Galway District Court heard the accused obtained a forged passport from people in Galway at a cost of €600. However, staff at the social welfare office in Galway became suspicious and contacted Garda Pat Walker, an immigration officer based in Dublin. He came to Galway and interviewed the accused who adamantly claimed he was Josef Ramadan, the name on the passport. Garda Walker said the passport was an excellent forgery. He added that there was no way of checking out Jabar's story in Iraq.
Defending solicitor Mr Adrian MacLynn said his client was under pressure to repay the loan obtained by his family in Iraq and a passport was "arranged" for him by people he knew in Galway, so that he could get a job. Mr MacLynn said the Garda had great powers of detection now in identifying forged documents.
"I wonder if it's just a drop in the ocean. It shows a networking of people involved in facilitating access to Ireland. The trade is there and being utilised by people who have money," Judge John Garavan pointed out.
Insp Tony O'Donnell said Jabar was intent on defrauding the State out of money and he had been charged with having the false passport in his possession contrary to Section 29 (2) of the Criminal Justice (Theft and Fraud Offences) Act 2001.
Judge Garavan said Jabar had assimilated himself into an underworld capable of procuring fraudulent documents, so that he could either get employment or State benefit. The case, he said, caused disquiet insofar as it touched on the world political situation which was poised in a precarious position at present and it also touched on the trade in an underworld of stateless people who could procure false passports for sums of money and proceed on the basis of getting in and getting the benefits from their fraudulent purchases. He said this was of great concern to this country and its citizens who were being used by people who benefited from this criminal activity. Therefore, he said, it had to be treated as a very serious matter and the whole case had been founded on fraud, which the accused perpetuated until he was finally confronted with reality.
Judge Garavan then imposed an eight-month sentence, and fixed recognisance in the event of an appeal, on Jabar's own surety of €2,000 and one independent surety of €4,000.
Moments later, a Galway publican, Mr Peter Burke, the licensee of a pub in Prospect Hill,lodged €4,000 in court for the release of Jabar, pending an appeal hearing.