Singaporean jailed for using fake Indonesian passports multiple times

SINGAPORE – A Singaporean divorcee who moved to Indonesia to start a new life and overstayed assumed a different identity to obtain two Indonesian passports for travel to Singapore multiple times between 2007 and 2016.

Amran Abdul Sattar, 52, was sentenced to 22 weeks’ jail on Thursday after he pleaded guilty to eight charges under the Immigration Act.

Amran last used his Singapore passport when he left Singapore on Dec 28, 2004, for Indonesia, where he began working as a translator. He was in Indonesia for about two months when he realised that he had overstayed.

Despite realising this, he did not seek help from the authorities as he did not want to be arrested for overstaying. He had also lost his Singapore passport by then.

To continue staying in Indonesia without repercussions, Amran asked a friend for help and obtained an Indonesian identity card under the name of “Indra Shahdan”.

He got the passport in 2007 for five million rupiah which bore Amran’s photograph but showed Mr Indra’s particulars.

Court documents did not disclose details about Mr Indra or if he exists. There are no details about Amran’s friend and how the identity card and the passport were obtained.

Amran used the Indonesian passport to travel in and out of Singapore in 2007 and 2008. In 2016, he forked out 350,000 rupiah for a second Indonesian passport which also bore his own photograph but showed Mr Indra’s particulars.

According to Amran, he had the necessary documents to apply for an Indonesian passport from his marriage to an Indonesian woman in June 2008. He claimed that these included an Indonesian identity card and a marriage certificate.

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On Feb 16, 2016, he produced his second Indonesian passport to an immigration officer at the Singapore Cruise Centre.

On his disembarkation form, Amran also claimed to be Mr Indra and that he had purportedly never used a passport under a different name to enter Singapore.

The unsuspecting immigration officer then granted him a 30-day visit pass.

Amran went on to commit similar offences at the Singapore Cruise Centre later that year.

Court documents did not state how his offences came to light but Immigration and Checkpoints Authority officers later arrested him in a Chai Chee flat near Bedok North on March 15, 2023.

This article was first published in The Straits Times. Permission required for reproduction.