The administrative court in Madinah sentenced a Saudi man to five years in prison and a fine of SR 10,000 for forging documents to arrange citizenship for 26 foreign children. He confessed to the prosecution’s charges of falsely adding children to his ID after receiving huge amounts of money from their parents, Al-Madinah daily reported.
The 62-year-old man managed to earn at least SR 410,000 through his fraudulent practices, and in clandestine understanding with some officials of the Civil Status Department in Madinah.
According to records at the department, the man has 30 children from three wives, but it was revealed during investigations that only four of them are his children, and the remaining 26 are of various foreign nationals. He registered their names at the department after producing forged documents and birth certificates.
Charges against the man included the use of falsified marriage contracts that proved he had married some women simply to misuse their name as mothers of 26 foreign children. He then registered their names with the department so as to secure them Saudi citizenship.
It was also revealed that there were no records for nine of the children at the Health Affairs Department in Madinah.
Investigations unearthed some strange practices pursued by the man, for instance, some of his ‘wives’ gave birth to babies three times a year, according to the data registered with the department.
Madinah police authorities interrogated the civil status and health officials to uncover whether they had any involvement in the forgeries. Investigators found that the man used various means to forge documents and dupe the officials. He managed to register the name of a pregnant woman at the Civil Status Department’s record as his wife, and after her delivery added the name of her baby among his children. Police arrested a foreigner who worked as a broker to arrange citizenship for foreigners’ children after receiving huge commissions, the newspaper reported.
A spokesman of the Civil Affairs office, an affiliate of the Ministry of Interior, said the Saudi citizenship of the 26 non-Saudi children will be withdrawn.