Mali and Liel Yahalomi, the Israeli mother and daughter whose disappearance in Europe triggered an international search in August, have been arrested in Namibia on suspicion of possessing forged passports, Israeli police were informed Wednesday morning.
New details obtained by Ynet indicate that the two had been in contact with people linked to criminal networks in an effort to obtain foreign passports. They also cut their hair and changed their appearance in what authorities believe was an attempt to conceal their identities. “They no longer look the way they did,” said a police official who worked on the case.
Mali and Liel Yahalomi
(Photo: From the Facebook page of the Israeli Embassy in Vienna)
According to the information received, the two attempted to leave Namibia using Hungarian passports suspected of being forged and purchased on the gray market. Despite the change in their appearance, Namibian police identified them and confirmed to Israeli authorities that the women in custody were Mali and Liel Yahalomi.
The mother and daughter first made headlines in August after disappearing while traveling in Europe, initially raising fears in Israel that they may have been caught up in a serious security incident. About a week later, they were found on a bus in Buenos Aires, Argentina, after authorities had expressed grave concern for their safety.
They were questioned there by an Israeli police representative in South America, who ruled out criminal suspicion at the time, and the two were allowed to continue on their way. Investigators believed their disappearance may have been connected to financial difficulties.
The route they had taken was more complex than initially understood. Their journey did not begin in Vienna, but in the Czech Republic, where mobile phones can be purchased without presenting a passport. Investigators believed they then traveled to Vienna, where they recorded videos intended for their family but sent them only after they had already continued to another country, apparently Germany.
A senior police official said at the time that the delayed transmission of the videos appeared designed to create the false impression that the women were still in Vienna. From Germany, they flew to Argentina, where they were eventually located and questioned.
Authorities also believed at the time that Buenos Aires was not intended to be the final stop on their journey and that the two planned to continue to another destination, which could not then be disclosed.
Their latest appearance in Namibia now sheds new light on that assessment. The southwestern African country lies on the Atlantic coast and has maintained diplomatic relations with Israel since 2013, though neither country operates an embassy in the other. Relations have at times been strained over the war in Gaza.
The investigation in Namibia is now focused on the suspected forged Hungarian passports and the circumstances under which the two obtained them, while Israeli authorities have been updated on their detention.
First published: 09:01, 10.07.26