"Investigators of the Class I Immigration Office for the Soekarno-Hatta Immigration Checkpoint have (changed) the status of a foreigner, with the initials 'EW,' to suspect," Head of the Class I Immigration Office for the Soekarno-Hatta Immigration Checkpoint Muhammad Tito Andrianto noted in a written statement received here on Tuesday.
EW was named a suspect after immigration investigators managed to collect two valid pieces of evidence. It was known that the suspect took a flight with Garuda Indonesia aircraft (GA875) on the Haneda route to Soekarno-Hatta.
At first, immigration checkpoint officers were suspicious of EW during the immigration checks. According to the observation of physical characteristics, EW did not appear to be a Mexican or a person from Latin America.
EW actually had Chinese physical characteristics. The officer's suspicion grew when EW could speak neither Spanish nor English, though was fluent in Mandarin instead.
The officers also found irregularities in the passports, as there were signs of changes on the covers, visa pages, and sewing threads, and they seemed untidy.
Moreover, the intelligence and immigration division at the Soekarno-Hatta Immigration Checkpoint Special Class I Immigration Office followed up with a forensic examination of documents using the VSC-80i device.
"As a result, the passport used by EW was considered to be a fake," he stated.
This finding was backed up by a statement from the Mexican Embassy in Jakarta, which explained that EW's name and birth certificate number were not recorded in the Civil Registry Book. EW was also not registered under the national passport issuance system.
The immigration officers seized several pieces of evidence, comprising a fake Mexican national passport, a printout of the E-Visa of Indonesia, a boarding pass, a Mexican election card, a Mexican driver's license, and several ATM cards.
EW could be sanctioned under Article 119, paragraph 2 of Indonesia Law Number 6 of 2011 on Immigration, with a maximum imprisonment of five years and a fine of Rp500 thousand (US$33).
Currently, the person was detained at the Class II A Youth Correctional Institution in Tangerang during the investigation process.
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Translator: Muhammad Zulfikar, Mecca Yumna
Editor: Rahmad Nasution
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