The head of the Documents Issuing Section of Chisinau’s Rascani district and an inspector of the same institution were arrested by officers of the National Anticorruption Center on corruption-related charges. The functionaries are suspected of issuing identity cards and biometric passports with false data to persons who are not entitled to Moldovan nationality and are even searched for by the Interpol, IPN reports.

According to the National Anticorruption Center, the investigation was launched following a notification from the State Information Registers Department of the Information Resources Center “Registru”. A number of searches were performed at the Rascani Documents Issuing Section and at the home of its head. There were found a number of Soviet-type passports and documents with false data.

The functionaries will be under arrest for 72 hours. They face two to six years in jail for misuse of power. They will also be banned from holding particular posts and performing particular activities for a period of five to ten years.

The ICT Ministry issued a communiqué, saying a number of inspections at Documents Issuing Sections were carried out following an application from the State Information Registers Department. An illegal scheme to issue documents to unidentified persons was identified at the section in Rascani. The given persons obtained thus Moldovan nationality. The National Anticorruption Center was notified when the internal inquiry was completed.