10,000 euros for an ID Kosovar forges passport and says in court: "I am the victim"

For three years, a Kosovar man lived and worked in Switzerland with a forged Italian passport. He has now been convicted and claims to be the victim in this forgery case.

A 29-year-old man from Kosovo must leave Switzerland. This is after the Federal Supreme Court rejected his appeal against his deportation. He was also recently brought before the District Court of Brugg.

The public prosecutor's office charged the man with deceiving the Aargau authorities with a forged Italian ID and living and working in the canton for several years. This was reported by the "Aargauer Zeitung" (AZ).

A "genuine" Italian ID card for 10,000 euros

The accused spent the first four years of his life in Switzerland, after which he lived in Kosovo or in Italy with relatives. In May 2017, "an Albanian" allegedly offered him an original Italian passport from the municipality for 10,000 euros in a bar in Milan. With his personal details, name and picture, as found on his Kosovo ID card.

The Albanian justified the high price with the speed of delivery. Normally you would have to live in Italy for a few years for this. And the 29-year-old didn't even speak Italian.

"I thought it was an original and a normal price. I thought that everything was fine." The court took a different view. "It's obvious that things weren't right with a price of 10,000 euros," explained the judge at the sentencing.

Three years working for various companies

With the fake ID, the man managed to obtain a residence and work permit in Aargau. He worked for various companies for three years. The Aargau authorities were apparently not suspicious of the fact that his place of birth was given as Laufenburg in Germany on one ID card and Laufenburg in Switzerland on the other.

In the end, he was caught because of two anonymous written tips. He tells AZ that he doesn't know who wrote them. However, his forged ID was also noticed by Kosovan customs officials during an inspection. So he would have been caught even without the anonymous tips.

"I am the victim"

"I am the victim", said the accused in his closing statement. His defense lawyer said in his summation: "He assumed in good faith that he had legitimately obtained a genuine ID."

The court sentenced the 29-year-old to a conditional prison sentence of nine months and a fine of CHF 1,000 for multiple forgery of identity documents, deception of the authorities, unlawful entry and unauthorized employment.

The judge thus fell three months short of the prosecution's request. Contrary to the prosecution's request, the judge did not impose an expulsion order.

The Italian ID is a blank forgery. This means that a genuine ID was stolen - in this case back in 2010 - and provided with false data. The signature and fountain stamp were subsequently applied to the ID with toner. According to the authorities, this type of forgery is difficult to detect as ID forgery is becoming increasingly professional.