Namibia Arrests Two Iranian Women Posing As Israelis

Namibian authorities have detained two Iranian women who allegedly posed as Israelis while travelling with fake passports, Israeli media reported Wednesday.

The women were initially identified as Mali and Liel Yahalomi, an Israeli mother and daughter who disappeared in August and were later found in Argentina.

Namibian authorities had informed Israeli officials that the Yahalomis had been detained after reportedly using forged passports.

However, further checks by an Israeli representative found that the women in custody were not the Yahalomis but Iranian nationals, according to reports.

The women reportedly entered Namibia through a land border using fake Hungarian passports and remained in the country for about three weeks before the documents were detected at an airport as they attempted to travel to Europe.

A Chabad rabbi in Namibia who visited the detainees said one was a teenage girl and the other was a woman in her 40s. He said they spoke Persian and English and did not speak Hebrew.

The circumstances surrounding why the women claimed to be Israeli remain unclear.

The Yahalomis, who are not connected to the Namibian case, were found in Argentina in August after an international search and were subsequently released after Israeli authorities found no indication of a criminal offence.