'Third man' in passport case denies involvement

1.00pm

The third man named as the Kuwaiti mastermind in a huge passport forgery plot has denied he was part of the plan and even that he is from Kuwait.

Yesterday, after deliberating for four days a jury in Auckland District Court found Iraqi Fahad Jabel Ajeil, 29, guilty on 14 counts of forgery and acquitted him on another five counts.

Riyad Hamied Sultan, 29, from Kuwait, was acquitted of 16 counts but found guilty of conspiracy to commit forgery.

In court, Kuwaiti Salaam Abu-Shaaban, who the Crown said had held high-profile posts in the Middle East, was named in the conspiracy charge, despite not being present.

The Crown said Dr Abu-Shaaban was the mastermind who placed orders for passports and other travel documents for people in the Middle East.

While not present, his figure "cast a shadow" over the case.

But Dr Abu-Shaaban today told National Radio from Kuwait he had not provided passports to people as Liberia's consul in Saudi Arabia. "No, not at all. This is not allowed. Never never happened."

He suggested a secretary he had once hired or somebody else had stolen and "used" his identity.

Dr Abu-Shaaban said he was not connected with the Kuwaiti government and was originally from Lebanon -- not Kuwait.

He denied he was the mastermind of the passport ring and said he did not know Ajeil or Sultan. "I don't have any idea about this issue... I am an old man... I am not a mastermind of anything."

He had never been contacted by the New Zealand Government about the passports and was unsure if the convicted men's defence lawyers had contacted him as so many people had called him in the last year.

Sultan and Ajeil were yesterday remanded in custody for sentencing in December.

Crown lawyers Ross Burns and Mina Wharepouri told the court the scale of the operation was unprecedented.

The Crown said hundreds of passports and other documents were produced or were in the process of being manufactured.

One of the charges Ajeil was found guilty of related to possession of items capable of being used for forgery, including computer, paper, glue, printers ink, needles, thread, drills, guillotine, printers paste, invisible ink, laminating pouches, stencil remover gel and ultra violet light.

- NZPA