3 Chinese jailed for possession of forged Bz. passports
You’d never think that a three and a half by five inch booklet could cause so much trouble … but it seems that in Belize, it is passports–and not petroleum–that carries the nickname black gold. Today the Immigration Department received more embarrassment as officials discovered what appears to be yet another set of purloined citizenship papers.
Janelle Chanona, Reporting
This afternoon, thirty-three year old Dong Fang Ouyang, twenty-four year old Pan Wu and thirty-seven year old Jiang Huimin were arraigned in Belize City Magistrate?s Court for possession of a false document and uttering upon false document. The men claim to be citizens of South Korea but today spoke Mandarin, the official language of Mainland China, during the judicial proceedings.
According to investigators, on Saturday morning the trio arrived at the Phillip Goldson International Airport on the nine forty five TACA flight out of El Salvador. Local police were waiting as immigration officials checked the validity of the passports handed to them.
Superintendent Chester Williams, Head, C.I.B
?The passports were checked by the immigration officers and the signatures inside the passports were not compatible with that of any past directors of Immigration or the current director of Immigration?s signatures. We had made checks at the immigration office in Belmopan and we have confirmed that the passports are genuine Belizean passports, but the information data inside the passport was not placed there by immigration personnel which means that the passport may have been stolen from the Immigration Office was not reported, got into the hands of these people, they made their own passports, made their own stamps–they are many stamps in the passports that we believe were forged and placed inside the passports to have the passports appear to be genuine, a genuinely issued passports.?
Janelle Chanona
?Are you saying then that these passports that we have been hearing about, the five missing and then the two hundred missing … there may be more passports missing that we haven?t even heard about??
Chester Williams
?At this point in time, I would not want to say yes or I would not want to say no. But we are looking at that possibility that there could be more. The passports that we have recovered are in the eight or five hundred series and it?s the jumbo type passports, and the series is different from the two last set of passports that were reported stolen from the Immigration Department.?
In court this afternoon, the trio claimed that they bought the documents from a Chinese salesman believing they were genuine. It is estimated that the men may have paid between sixty and eighty thousand U.S. dollars each for the passports.
Chester Williams
?They just wanted to come to Belize to look for work obviously.?
Initial investigations reveal the passports were stolen sometime between 1999 and 2000.
Janelle Chanona
?Does this prompt a massive or intensive investigation into the affairs of the Immigration Department??
Chester Williams
?At this point in time we are looking at all possible angles. We are conducting an intense investigation. And yes, we want to know where these passports come from and we also want to know who if anybody from the Immigration Office are selling or giving out the Belizean passports so we?re looking at those possibilities.?
Reporting for News Five, I am Janelle Chanona.
The passports presented by the accused men carried the serial numbers A003550, A003565 and A003501. The charges against them are indictable so no plea was taken. Police Prosecutor Clinton Magdaleno objected to bail due to the seriousness of the offence and the flight risk of the accused. Chief Magistrate Herbert Lord remanded the trio and adjourned the matter until November sixth. Though all three were undefended in court today, via the court translator, they indicated that they will be requesting legal counsel to defend them in the Supreme Court trial. During today’s arraignment, the men gave New Road and King Street as their intended addresses in Belize.
