Italy arrests ex-minister for embezzling Iraqi aid

Italian police yesterday arrested the former Environment Minister Corrado Clini on charges of misappropriating environmental assistance funds to Iraq in cooperation with other parties as part of an ongoing criminal investigation of embezzling the Environment Ministry’s allocations.

Italian police said they had arrested the former minister on behalf of the city of Ferrara which decided to put him under house arrest on charges of embezzling public funds and abusing his position as director general of the ministry from 2007 until 2011 before being appointed Environment Minister under the technical government of former Prime Minister Mario Monti.

Italian prosecution accused Clini of misappropriating amounts estimated at more than €3 million of public money allocated to a project which aimed to purify contaminated water in the areas that were destroyed during the war in Iraq and deposited it in his name in Switzerland in collaboration with the Italian and English companies.

They said the investigation has been carried out in coordination with the public prosecutor in the capital Rome, the financial police and federal prosecutors in Lugano and the Swiss federal police.