Mali and Liel Yahalomi, the mother and daughter duo who made headlines during the summer after they went missing and were later found in Argentina, arrived on Wednesday afternoon at Israel's Ben Gurion Airport. This comes just hours after reports of the two being arrested in Namibia were debunked.
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.
However, the Chabad-Lubavitch emissary in the country, Rabbi Yosef Rahimi, helped the truth come to light when he went to the police station to assist the two after hearing they were Mali and Liel.
"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."
"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 told Mako.
According to Rahimi, the two women were 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.