Counterfeit Passports Uncover Foreign Intelligence Operations
He held a Bulgarian passport. However, the officers found two more passports in the backpack. One was an expired Bulgarian passport, the other an Iranian passport with a validity period until 2023.
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The atmosphere at the Qatar Airways check-in counter at the international departure area of Terminal 3 Soekarno-Hatta Airport, Tangerang City, Banten, Monday (6/12/2021). In this area, Iranian citizen Ghassem Saberi Gilchalan was arrested by the authorities for using a fake Bulgarian passport.
A man, about 165 cm tall with a stocky body and broad chest, walked leisurely toward a check-in counter of Qatar Airways at Terminal 3 of Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Banten, one evening at the end of May.
The atmosphere at the airport was almost quiet with not many passengers around.
Before the man, who was later identified as Ghassem Saberi Gilchalan, arrived at the counter to pick up his departure pass for the Jakarta-Doha flight, he was approached by a number of people.
They introduced themselves as personnel from the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Police Office and Soekarno-Hatta Immigration Office. Gilchalan, who was only carrying a backpack, without protesting was ushered by the officers to a room within the Terminal 3 building.
He was a 49-year-old man with fair skin, short silver hair and thick eyebrows. Rimless glasses were on the face. Tattoos were visible on his left and right arms.
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Ghassem Saberi Gilchalan
In the room, the officers peppered him with questions he responded to in casual English. He spoke with low intonation. He was interrogated for four hours. He had his belongings searched through and his identity cross-checked.
He held a Bulgarian passport. However, the officers found two more passports in the backpack. One was an expired Bulgarian passport, the other an Iranian passport with a validity period until 2023. Both were in his name.
The officers also found Gilchalan carrying a bundle of Persian-language documents, several cards showing a membership of the Malaysian Ex-Police Association and the Malaysian elite force PDRM 69 Squad.
Other findings were cash in the form of 16 foreign currencies with a nominal value of Rp 140 million, 11 cell phones, one tablet, one music player, two modems and several local or other national driving license cards.
Of the 11 mobile phones, three were devices that could only be used to make phone calls and send messages, such as the Nokia 3310 and 8110. The rest were smartphones such as the iPhone 5, iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, i-Phone 11 and Huawei Y5.
Fake Bulgarian passport belonging to Ghassem Saberi Gilchalan
Questioned about so many cell phones, Gilchalan simply said he had friends in several countries and had to save their numbers, as reported in September by Adjunct Commissioner Rezha Rahandhi, who is head of the criminal investigation unit of the Soekarno-Hatta Airport Police Office.
The police checked the authenticity of Gilchalan's Bulgarian passport. "The Bulgarian Embassy through a written statement confirmed that the passport was a counterfeit. He is not a Bulgarian citizen. Gilchalan also admitted that," Rezha said.
For his Iranian passport, the police received confirmation from the Iranian Embassy in Jakarta that Gilchalan was an Iranian citizen.
The Kompas team tried to acquire further information related to Gilchalan on Monday (29/11/2021) from the Iranian Embassy. However, as of Wednesday (8/12), no response had been received.
In mid-September, he was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of Rp 100 million. His appeal was rejected in November.
Gilchalan was arrested on a charge of passport fraud and tried at the Tangerang District Court, Banten. In mid-September, he was found guilty and sentenced to two years in prison and a fine of Rp 100 million. His appeal was rejected in November.
On the radar
By the time of his apprehension in May, data at the immigration office shows that Gilchalan had entered and left Indonesia 30 times during the 2012-2021 period, switching between Iranian and Bulgarian passports.
The Bulgarian passport was used to enter Indonesia from 2013 to 2018 and 2021 from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.
The Iranian passport was used in 2012 and 2019 only for traveling from and back to the home country. The Bulgarian passport was used to enter Indonesia from 2013 to 2018 and 2021 from Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Australia.
A Kompas source with law enforcement said Gilchalan's suspected activities had been on the national security radar since 2020.
The national authorities were said to be setting out to gather information about Gilchalan and working with the airport authorities as well as the airline operators. The tracking down led to his capture.
A number of cards bearing the members of the Malaysian Ex-Police Association and Squad 69 PDRM brought by Ghassem Saberi Gilchalan.
The content extraction carried out by the law enforcers on Gilchalan's 11 cellphones aroused the officers’ suspicion with the finding of not only phone contacts but also the downloaded 400 gigabytes (GB) of data.
Among them were photos of three Indonesian military and defense officials. There were also scans of 56 passports with the issuing states including Argentina, Belarus, Bulgaria, Canada, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Iran, Italy, Mexico, the Netherlands, Pakistan, Poland, Spain, the United Kingdom, the United States and Uzbekistan.
There were also several photos with the same blue background as biographic photos in some passports, but had distinct face shapes, hairstyles and shirts.
There appeared an Iranian tanker, MT Horse, whose captain is facing criminal charges in Indonesia regarding alleged violations over shipping lanes in Kalimantan waters when illegally transferring oil to Panama-flagged tanker MT Freya in January.
The national authorities have detained the tanker’s captain, Iranian Mehdi Monghasemjahromi, in Batam, Riau Islands, and confiscated the tanker loaded with 1.8 million barrels of crude oil.
The content extracted from the cellphone also showed a screenshot of Gilchalan's conversation with someone in Batam, related to the MT Horse case.
Alleged intelligence
Rear Admiral (retired) Soleman B. Ponto, former head of the National Army strategic intelligence agency suspected an intelligence spy operation behind the discovered evidence of counterfeit passports, dozens of cellphones, photos of officials, scans of dozens of passports and written communications with parties related to the MT Horse tanker.
He said that for a casual tourist to carry dozens of cellphones was unnatural, if not an intelligence agent tasked with a mission.
Documentation of Ghassem Saberi Gilchalan's appeal against the decision of the Tangerang District Court judge. The judge sentenced him to two years in prison and a fine of Rp. 100 million because Gilchalan was proven to have used a fake passport to enter Indonesia.
The devices were said to be used to communicate and find information regarding the mission being performed. The old-fashioned cellphones that were not connected to the internet, he said, were needed because they were difficult to trace.
"There are cellphones that are specifically used to receive calls, make calls and to communicate with specific people," he said.
Police intelligence expert Inspector General (retired) Ansyaad Mbai said the number of passports and passport-sized photos on Gilchalan's cellphones showed that he was not an ordinary person.
"That evidence being isolated speaks enough that it was not an ordinary crime. He must have come a long way in preparing the cover by disguising his work and identity. And the information he gave, in my opinion, was also a cover story," he said.
Inspector General (retired) Ansyaad Mbai
Brigadier General (Pol) Andi Rian, the Police Criminal Investigation Unit’s (Bareskrim) director for general crimes, said there had been no cases related to Gilchalan's alleged intelligence operations based on the investigations by his office. However, he admitted that information about Gilchalan has already been discussed. “It's just a discussion, but we haven't found any visible criminal element yet," he said. (TEAM KOMPAS)
(This article was translated by Musthofid).
