Sarkozy “affair” uncovers another Dominican passport scandal

Santo Domingo. – Justice minister Francisco Dominguez on Friday announced a probe into how a French-Lebanese national investigated in his country for high-level political funding obtained a Dominican diplomatic passport, to allegedly use it to try to flee France.

The passport scandal is just the latest report of trafficking with Dominican Republic passports, the most notorious being the case of a Russian national who visited the Dominican embassy in Washington DC and asked in a loud voice, “is this the place that sells diplomatic passports.”

For its part, Passports Agency PR Malena Vilmania Nuñez noted that it only issues ordinary passports and that it’s the Foreign Ministry which handles diplomatic passports.

She said Ziad Takieddine, who cantt leave France because he’s the target of the probe into the "Karachi affair" scandal, likely obtained a passport known as a "machete" or illegal, since the data affixed to the passport, in this case, was glued on.

Takieddine allegedly paid 200,000 euros (US$260,000) for a diplomatic passport from the Dominican Republic.

The businessman is involved in several scandals in France, some linking former French President Nicolas Sarkozy and other high-profile politicians.