Palestinian John Doe succeeds in deceiving police

A Palestinian man imprisoned for trespassing succeeds in misleading police by stealing Hebron man's identity

Ra'anan Ben-Zur|Published: 09.15.11 , 14:28

A Palestinian arrested and imprisoned managed to make a mockery of the police by providing false personal information – using the details of a Hebron resident.

Five months after he was imprisoned the identity thief from Hebron sought to enter Israel, and only then did the police realize that the convict had managed to deceive them. The John Doe was arrested for suspicions of impersonation and the court remanded him for five days.

The Palestinian youth was arrested five months ago for trespassing. During the police interrogation, he provided police with the false personal information, name and ID of a man from Hebron. The arresting officers checked his identity by fingerprinting him but could not find a match in the police database. He was then indicted based on the false information he presented to the police and sentenced to seven months in prison.

It is possible that his "masquerade" would never have been exposed had the young man from Hebron whose identity the convict stole, would not have submitted a request to enter Israel. His request was met with a negative response with authorities claiming he could not receive an entry permit as he was serving a prison sentence. Upon further investigation, the ruse was revealed.

Now the police will have to investigate the John Doe's true identity with the hopes that this time, he will not smear another innocent man's reputation.

The police said in response that the detainee gave a name and ID number and added "the police did not content themselves with identifying marks that could be and were false, they fingerprinted him but the prints were not found in the database." The police added that the man had also managed to answer questions about the family of his chosen identity correctly.