Ms. Ghorbani explained in court that she obtained the visa in Turkey by paying an intermediary and admitted she had intended to seek asylum in Edinburgh, as reported by the local Danish newspaper Ekstra Bladet.
Ghorbani had left Iran due to undisclosed issues and stayed in Turkey for a while. She was detained at Copenhagen Airport while en route to Scotland. The forgery charge was related to a fake German visa stamp in her passport, detected during a passport scan.
In court, Ghorbani stated she was unaware of the visa’s forgery and believed it to be legitimate. She admitted her primary goal was to seek asylum in Scotland.
Despite the prosecutor’s argument that Ghorbani, as an experienced international referee, should have ensured her documents’ legality, the court found no evidence of her knowledge of the forgery and acquitted her.
Upon hearing the translated verdict, Ghorbani wept with joy.