Court orders detention of Kenyan citizen posing as Norwegian

A court has ordered the detention of a Kenyan citizen who allegedly used a forged Norwegian identity card at Vilnius Airport, LRT reported, citing Lithuania’s State Border Guard Service (VSAT).

Border guards stopped the man in the departure hall near the boarding gate for a flight to Catania, Sicily, on Tuesday night. He presented an identity card issued to a 27-year-old Norwegian man, but officers suspected that the document did not belong to him.

A further check determined that the Norwegian document was forged. The man also had a digital boarding pass on his phone issued in the same name. Officers found a Latvian asylum-seeker certificate issued to a 24-year-old Kenyan citizen.

The man told officers that he had left an asylum-seeker accommodation centre in Latvia. He had previously applied for asylum but had not received it.

VSAT launched a pre-trial investigation into the forgery or possession of a forged document. A prosecutor from the Vilnius District Prosecutor’s Office is overseeing the case.

On Thursday, a court ordered the Kenyan citizen to be held in custody for one month. The offence carries a fine, restriction of liberty, arrest or imprisonment of up to four years.