 Two Kuwaiti men were jailed on Monday for conspiring to forge hundreds of passports in what New Zealand police said was the biggest fake document operation they had ever seen. Fahad Jaber Ajeil, 29, found guilty on 14 charges at trial in October, was given a five-year sentence in the Auckland District Court. Riyad Hamied Sultan, 30, who was cleared of 16 charges by a jury but found guilty of conspiring to commit forgery with Ajeil, will go to jail for two years, Radio New Zealand reported.
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At trial, police said they found hundreds of false passports and other doctored travel documents relating to 17 countries in October 2003 when they raided an Auckland apartment occupied by the pair. The prosecution named a third man, Dr. Salam Abu-Shaaban, as being involved in the conspiracy, and defence lawyers for the two accused men claimed he was the mastermind in the passport operation. The jury took nearly four days to reach their verdicts, after the defence claimed the pair were innocent stooges in a plot that was directed from Kuwait.
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