Thu 23 December 2021:
A Lebanon-based US diplomat arrested in Turkey on suspicion of selling a Syrian national a fake passport for $10,000 has been remanded in custody, Turkish police said yesterday.
The arrest was made after a 11 November incident at Istanbul airport when the Syrian national tried to use another person’s passport to travel to Germany, said an Istanbul Security Directorate statement.
That passport belonged to the remanded diplomat, who works at the US Consulate in the Lebanese capital Beirut, it said.
The statement added that security camera footage showed that the two suspects met at the airport and changed their clothes there and that the US diplomat gave the Syrian the passport in question.
A body search of the diplomat found $10,000 in an envelope and a passport in his name, the statement added.
The Syrian national is facing charges of the forgery but was released pending trial, while the US diplomat was remanded in custody.
Foreign diplomats customarily have immunity from prosecution, but they are subject to prosecution and punishment in countries where they are not accredited.
Passport of arrested US citizen unveiled
Turkish authorities have disclosed the passport of a U.S. citizen who was detained and arrested on the charges of “forging official documents” while reportedly trying to help a Syrian national leave Turkey.
On the first page of the passport, it is seen that the U.S. citizen, identified only by initials D.J.K., was born in Syria in 1988 and received his travel document on May 18, 2021, which is valid until May 17, 2026.
Meanwhile, the U.S. officials denied the allegations that D.J.K. was a U.S. diplomat following reports in the Turkish media that he worked for the U.S. Consulate in the Lebanese capital city of Beirut.
Yesterday, the U.S. State Department said it was aware a U.S. citizen had been detained in Turkey but denied the person was a government diplomat.
It said the detained individual was being provided with the “appropriate consular services.”
Photo Courtesy: Hürriyet Daily News
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