The head of the visa department
in the Italian consulate in Iraqi Kurdistan has been replaced
after a foreign ministry probe found "irregularities" which have
been reported to competent prosecutors, the ministry said
Tuesday. The ministry said it was "wholly evident" that measures
would be taken. Corriere della Sera newspaper today revealed a
suspected case of visas being in the consulate being "sold for
10,000 euros". The Milan daily quoted foreign ministry spokesman
Marco Peronaci as saying the ministry was aware of the matter.
"We are awaiting," Peronaci told Corriere, "the results of the
inquiry organised by the foreign ministry. If the suspicions
were to be proven, the Rome prosecutor's office would have to
deal with the case. It has to be said that the case had been
urgently flagged already at the end of the summer by our consul
Alessandra Di Pippo who, despite having arrived in Erbil only a
short time previously, had immediately grasped the gravity of
it".
photo: Foreign Minister Angelino Alfano
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