A district court judge was left with no choice but to jail two unidentified illegal immigrants as gardai warned it could take up to four months to establish their true identity.
The Galway District Court heard yesterday that Zoheir Leboukh (37 ) and co-defendant Bouali Samir (as they are currently known ) had given numerous different names and nationalities to gardai and that the former Algerian army members were fearful of returning to their home country because of the threat of terrorists.
Both men pleaded guilty to a number of offences under the Immigration Act including failure to register and present themselves at the local immigration office as well as failure to produce on demand a valid passport which establishes their identity and nationality.
Garda Jimmy McElroy, a member of the Immigration Bureau, told the court that on December 23, 2008, at 1.25am he went to 1 Lenaboy Gardens, Salthill, where he met both defendants and demanded production of their passports or other equivalent documents. Garda McElroy said that Leboukh had first told him that he was French, however, he later changed his nationality to Morroccan and gave a different name. Leboukh was also unable to give details of his address and when an Algerian driving licence was produced yet another name was given.
Regarding Samir, Garda McElroy said that he had obtained a photocopy of Samir’s passport which gave a name of Salah-Eddine Tebouche. The defendant also told gardai that he was French but later changed this to Iraqai and then Algerian. Garda McElroy admitted that the true identity of the men has still not been established. He said that he has now applied for a 15 day letter to be sent by the Department of Justice which orders the defendants to either leave the country voluntarily or give the Minister a reason why they should stay. If they fail to to so within the time given they will be deported.
Garda McElroy then admitted that it could take “any length of time” to sort out the identities as the Algerian authorities were difficult to deal with. He said that it had taken up to four months in other cases.
Defence solicitor for both defendants Adrian MacLynn said they had entered the country illegally over three months ago and that they had both been members of the Algerian army. However, they deserted because of the political situation and are now afriad of being returned because they will be “processed” by the authorities and may be the target of terrorist groups. Mr MacLynn said that he has advised both of his clients, who have been in custody since their arrest, to apply for asylum.
Judge Hamill imposed a two month jail sentence on both defendants backdated to December 23.
