Iraq Kurd consulate visa chief sacked (2)

(ANSA) - Rome, February 28 - 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