A new twist has emerged in the case of Mali and Liel Yahalomi, who were reported to have been arrested in Namibia: The country’s Chabad-Lubavitch emissary, Rabbi Yosef Rahimi, claims that the two women in custody are not the Israeli mother and daughter, but rather two Iranian citizens who were carrying forged Israeli passports.
Earlier Wednesday, Israel Police were informed through the police representative in Africa that Mali and Liel had been arrested in Namibia on suspicion of possessing forged passports. Israeli police are not involved in the local investigation.
Later, however, Rabbi Rahimi went to the police station to assist the two detainees, whom he had been told were Mali and Liel, and said he discovered that they were different women.
"I brought food and water for the mother and daughter, thinking they were Liel and Mali," he said. "I arrived at the police station and it turned out they weren’t them. I saw them in person. It’s not them."
Speaking to Mako, Rahimi said he visited the two women in their detention cell.
"It turned out that they are two Iranian citizens, a 14-year-old girl and a mother around 40 years old. They did not know a single word of Hebrew. They spoke with me a little in English and Persian, and they are not Mali and Liel Yahalomi," he said.
According to Rahimi, the two were the only women classified by local police as Israeli citizens, because they were carrying forged Israeli passports.
At this stage, authorities in Namibia or Israel have not officially confirmed Rabbi Rahimi’s account, and the circumstances that led to the initial report identifying the detainees as Mali and Liel Yahalomi are still being examined.
Mali and Liel made headlines about two months ago after contact with them was lost during a stay in Vienna and they were declared missing. About a week later, they were located by an Israel Police representative in Argentina, questioned, and released after no suspicion of criminal activity arose against them at the time.