An official of the Ghana Immigration Service (GIS) has said the four Yemenis apprehended in Ghana could not show visas they used in boarding the flight into the country.
Deputy Superintendent of Immigration (DSI) Mohammed Abu Manan told the court that the passports owned by the Yemenis were blank and defective at a glance.
DSI Manan was testifying in respect of the four who had arrived in Ghana with fake Emergency Entry Visas and French passports.
According to the witness, it was during a vigorous search that the suspects produced additional Yemenis passports.
The suspects are Esmail Yahya Zeyad aka Evra Allerson, Gaafar Eissa Yahya Amer, aka Ciro Carlos, Waleed Ahmed Yahya aka Debuchya Allard, all students and Eissa Yahya Amer a businessman.
They have been variously charged with possession of forged documents, fake Emergency Entry Visas, and forgery of official documents.
The four, who spoke through an Arabic interpreter, pleaded not guilty.
Led in evidence by Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) Stephen Adjei, the witness said on November 24, last year, he was at duty at the Fraud Unit, GIS, at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) when he had a call from the Control Unit of the Service.
DSI Manan said the call. which emanated from his Shift Supervisor Assistant Controller of Immigration Dodzi Amekpelenu, said the accused persons had three French passports and a Yemeni Passport.
Mr Manan said the shift supervisor’s complaint was that the accused persons’ passports were without visas
DSI Manan explained that Esmail, Gafaar and Waleed had in his possession French passports, while Eissa had a Yemeni passport.
He then submitted a report on the suspects and attached their two different kinds of passports produced by the accused persons to the GIS headquarters.
DSI tendered the three French Passports in court but indicated that the Yemeni passport produced initially by Eissa was at the GIS headquarters.
DSP Aidan Dery, the prosecutor, who earlier read the facts, said all the accused persons were Yemeni Nationals who arrived at the Kotoka International Airport (KIA) on board Ethiopian Airline Flight ET 920, on November 24.
He said whiles undergoing immigration arrival procedures, Esmail, Gaafar and Waleed were found with French passport with different names.
The Prosecution said further search on them revealed that all the accused persons had Yemeni passports too and when the French passports with different names were examined, they were found to be fake.
According to the prosecution, when the accused persons were quizzed they claimed Abdulai Mohammed, an individual based in Yemen, was the one who secured for them the French passports.
He said they claimed the same individual gave them a phone number to call a certain Mohammed on arrival in Ghana.
The prosecution said the accused persons were on transit in Ghana to France, then to Istanbul, Turkey.
The prosecution said another examination of their Yemeni passports indicated that Esmail and Gaafar had travelled several times to Djibouti before their trip to Ghana.
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