Iranian Couple Arrested at Bangkok’s Suvarnanabhumi Airport With Fake Passports

 

BANGKOK – Thailand’s Immigration Bureau chief Surachate Hakparn told a media briefing Saturday that an Iranian man and woman have been arrested at Suvarnanabhumi International Airport for using counterfeit Bulgarian passports to enter the country.

Mr. Moazzez Houman, 42, and Ms. Esmaeili Holasou, 36, were apprehended at an immigration checkpoint at around 11am on Friday, said Pol Lt Gen Surachate Hakparn, told the media conference on Saturday.

Mr Houman was found to holding a fake Bulgarian passport under the name Iliev Denis Albertov, while Ms Holasou was travelling under the name Danailova Petya Petkova.

The arrests came after officials observed the pair behaving suspiciously while they queued at the checkpoint for visas on arrival. Officials checked their Bulgarian passports and found they were fake.

During interrogation, they said that they were Iranian nationals seeking to travel to a third country. They claimed they had paid US$20,000, or about 630,000 baht, for each passport.

They were held in police custody at the airport police station on charges of forging and using fake passports.