JEDDAH, 25 January 2007 — An investigation continues in the case of a foreign resident who has been living in northern Jeddah as a Saudi using fake documents for the past 10 years, the daily Al-Madinah reported yesterday.
The man, who was not named in the report yesterday but had been identified earlier this week in the local press as a 30-year-old Yemeni by the name of Ehab Hassan, was reportedly living as Salih Al-Zahrani.
Now the real Al-Zahrani has come out and retained a lawyer. He says he only heard about the identity theft by reading the newspaper reports earlier this week. He said he is considering legal action against the suspect, who is living in the Kingdom illegally and whom police claim was found in possession of fake identity documents.
The report says the suspect, who has a wife and seven children, admitted purchasing these documents in Jeddah’s downtown Balad district. The suspect reportedly told police that he was trying to obtain counterfeit documents that would place his wife and children on a Saudi family identification card, which is used by Saudi citizens to claim social benefits and state-funded medical treatment.
Al-Zahrani said that sharing his identity with the suspect has cost him money, and he has had to dispute some charges that — as it turns out — had been the result of the identity theft crime. “I paid SR3,000 this past month for my phone bill and SR2,500 for traffic violations that I didn’t commit,” Al-Zahrani told the newspaper. “I told the manager of the traffic department that there must be some mistake.”
According to Al-Zahrani’s lawyer, Salim Al-Ghamdi, his client has the right to sue the perpetrator of this crime for financial losses.
