Man Arrested For Having The Same Passport As One Of The Paris Attackers
A man was arrested in Serbia for possessing a Syrian passport containing the same information as a passport found near one of the deceased Paris attackers.
According to The Guardian, the passport of the man arrested at a Serbian refugee center on Saturday features the same details but a different photograph than the passport discovered near the body of a man who self-detonated outside the Stade de France on Friday.
A man believed to be a Paris attacker reportedly arrived on the Greek island of Leros on October 7, registered as a refugee and eventually made it to France after passing through Serbia, Croatia, Hungary and Austria.
It is believed this man later traveled with the same Syrian passport found near the body of the Paris attacker.
The passports name both men as 25-year-old Ahmad Almohammad, according to The Guardian. It is not clear, however, whether this is the real name of either man.
Serbian police believe both passports were forgeries and may have even been purchased from the same source in Turkey, the Independent reports.
The suspicion that one of the Paris attackers was able to slip through numerous countries as a refugee reportedly prompted Slovenia and Austria to close their borders.
Serbian officials will meet today to consider doing the same, but France is analyzing the fingerprints of the man who arrived on the Greek island, as well as the remains of the Paris attacker, to determine if they are indeed the same person.
Governors of numerous American states vowed to stop accepting refugees, but President Obama said over the next 12 months, 10,000 refugees from Syria will be allowed to enter the US.
At the G20 conference in Turkey on Monday, Obama said,
The people who are fleeing Syria are the most harmed by terrorism. They are the most vulnerable as a consequence of civil war and strife. They are parents. They are children. They are orphans and it is very important… that we do not close our hearts to these victims of such violence and somehow start equating the issue of refugees with the issue of terrorism.
European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker agreed, saying people looking to commit crimes should not be confused with those who fled their homes for their own safety.
Citations: Serbian police arrest man with Syrian passport matching Paris attackers (The Guardian), Serbian police arrest man carrying Syrian passport with exact same details as document found on Paris bomber (Independent)
