Iranian arrested in Argentina after Supreme Court upholds sentence for using stolen passport

Buenos Aires police arrested Sajjad Samiei Naserani, an Iranian citizen, in the Flores neighborhood following a Supreme Court decision that finalized his four-and-a-half-year prison sentence for illicit association and document forgery. The conviction stems from his attempt to enter Argentina in March 2019 using stolen and altered Israeli passports.

The Supreme Court of Justice of the Nation, through judges Horacio Rosatti, Carlos Rosenkratz, and Ricardo Lorenzetti, dismissed an appeal filed by Naserani's defense, leaving the 2020 sentence firm. The court's ruling stated that the appellant failed to meet the required conditions, leading to the dismissal of his direct presentation.

The arrest was ordered by Federal Oral Court No. 6 after a request from prosecutor Fabiana León. The case began when Naserani and his partner, architect Manzoreh Sabzali, arrived at Ezeiza International Airport from Madrid. They presented passports reported stolen in Israel and subsequently altered with their photographs but bearing the identification details of Israeli citizens.

Despite Interpol's "orange alert" regarding the documents, migration officials allowed them to proceed after they signed a form acknowledging the Interpol warning about the passports' "loss." Federal Police Interpol detectives later tracked the couple to the Hotel Arc Abasto in the Once area. The investigation, led by former federal judge Luis Rodríguez and the late prosecutor Jorge Di Lello, uncovered an international ring involved in stealing and altering identification documents. This network reportedly had operations in Spain, Portugal, England, Greece, Turkey, and Iran.