Reykjaness District Court sentenced three Bolivian women, Adela Orellana Jaldin, Noemi Coca Reyes and Judith Camacho Guzman to 45 days in prison for forgery.
Buy residence permits at a travel agency
The women were accused of having, on Sunday November 27, at Keflavík airport, attempted to deceive border guards and police with false residence permit cards from Portugal and Spain when they arrived in the country from Dublin, Ireland.
All of the women said they lived in Bolivia and flew to Germany and then to Dublin, where they stayed for more than a week as tourists before arriving in Iceland. They had bought the tickets from a Bolivian travel agency and had also received the residence cards there, supposed to open all the doors to the continent.
Afterwards, the women said that they had learned about Iceland, among other places on YouTube, and that they had found it to be a good place to live.
All of the women pleaded not guilty at the main trial in mid-February, but said they were fleeing abusive ex-husbands or fathers in their home countries, where femicide is common.
incredible stories
They said they were unaware that the identity documents they presented when they arrived in the country were fake. They thought it was legal papers purchased from a travel agency in Bolivia.
In the judgments against the women, it is stated that it is indisputable that the identity cards were falsified, and the women’s statement that they did not know that the residence permit certificates were falsified was considered extremely little reliable. Such a certificate would not be available for purchase from travel agencies.
The sentences against the women are unconditional, but they were also ordered to pay the salaries of their defense lawyers, more than 240,000 ISK each.
