Iranian flees to Malta to avoid jail for brother's crime

A 27-year-old Iranian man, who fled his country of birth to avoid being imprisoned in his brother’s stead, has been handed a suspended sentence in Malta for using another man’s passport to travel here.

The man 'J' - whose name MaltaToday is not publishing so as to safeguard his asylum status - was born in Abadan in Iran, and arrived in Malta on Wednesday using an Egyptian passport which he had bought for €1,000 from Turkey.

Inspector Frankie Sammut told Magistrate Antonio Micallef Trigona that the man pictured on the passport bore a striking resemblance to the accused, however passport officials noticed that the man’s nose was different to his passport picture.

Sammut explained that the accused had been born into a well-to-do family of landowners in Iran. One day, however, the Iranian police had caught the accused’s brother in possession of 800 litres of wine. Alcohol is strictly forbidden under Iranian law.

For this crime the brother had been sentenced to six years’ imprisonment, reduced to three on appeal. 'J' had then approached the Iranian police and expressed his wish to serve the prison sentence in his brother’s stead, as the condemned man had a family to maintain.

'J' had been held under house arrest until his request could be decided by the courts, but he managed to escape the country, making his way to Turkey without a passport - a luxury only afforded to those Iranians who had completed two years’ compulsory military service.

Once in Turkey, 'J' had forked out €1,000 to buy the Egyptian passport with which he had been arrested in Malta.

Legal aid lawyer Martin Fenech entered a guilty plea, describing the circumstances as a humanitarian case and requested the court to factor this in its sentence.

Magistrate Micallef Trigona handed the man a three-month prison sentence, suspended for one year.

It is understood that 'J' will be held in detention pending an application for asylum. The effect of the man’s absconding on his brother’s fate is not known.