Syrian passport at Paris attack scene 'fake'

Syrian passport at Paris attack scene 'fake'
A Syrian passport found close to the body of one of three suicide bombers who targeted a football stadium in Paris is fake, it was widely reported on Monday.
2 min read
16 November, 2015
Serbian newspaper Blic quoted Serbian officials saying the Ahmad al-Mohammed's Syrian passport was fake [AFP]

Serbian police have detained a migrant holding a Syrian passport with the same data as one found by police at a Paris attack scene, the Blic newspaper reported Monday.

A Syrian passport in the name of Ahmad al-Mohammad was found at the Stade de France football stadium near the body of one of three suicide attackers at the sports venue Friday.

"A document with the same name and same data but with the photograph of another man was found on Saturday on another migrant in the (reception) centre in Presevo and that person was held for questioning," Blic reported, without giving a source.

"It is believed that these two men were not linked. However, the case will be examined because it is certain that both of them have bought fake Syrian passports at different times from the same counterfeiter in Turkey," Blic added.

Interior ministry officials were not immediately available for comment.


Syria link?

Greek and Serbian authorities have confirmed that the passport found at the football stadium was issued to a man who registered as a refugee in October on the island of Leros and applied for asylum in Serbia a few days later.

Earlier Monday, the French prosecutor's office said the passport "remains to be verified", but that the fingerprints of the dead attacker matched those taken in Greece in October.

The discovery of the Syrian passport in Paris has raised fears that some of the assailants might have entered Europe as part of the huge influx of people fleeing Syria's civil war.

Blic said that both documents were fake.

"It is believed that these two men were not linked. However, the case will be examined because it is certain that both of them have bought fake Syrian passports at different times from the same counterfeiter in Turkey," Blic said.

Officials in Greece had earlier said that the passport entered through the Aegean island of Leros on 3 October.