The prosecutor in the Astesiano case, Gabriela Fossati, indicated that she will investigate “all the documentation from all the Uruguayan consulates abroad.” At a court hearing, which she witnessed The Observer on Friday, warned that it is a “infinite task“as it involves”all the consulates of the Uruguayan embassies abroad” that since 2013 to 2019 issued passports.
At that hearing, Fossati clarified that the National Civil Identification Directorate (DNIC) has not yet provided him with the complete list, but the Foreign Ministry, in a report signed by engineer Daniel Pesce, director of the Information and Communications and Technologies Directorate, sent a list of officials from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who intervened in procedures so that descendants of Uruguayans obtain their passport in consulates abroad.
The destinations selected by the Foreign Ministry —in addition to Russia— were Chile, Mexico and Austria (Vienna). From there, Fossati will have to check this information with that provided by the DNIC and then relevate all the procedures to analyze if, as happened in Russia, birth certificates were tampered with in order to grant Uruguayan passports to citizens who did not really correspond to them.
In the case of the Uruguayan consulate in Russia, Fossati understands that the irregularity was committed with the connivance of the then consul Stéfano Di Conza, who signed at least five files Where they had 11 adulterations. Di Conza was in preventive custody since November 27. On February 3, a hearing was held in which the Prosecutor’s Office requested his bailsince he understood that the reasons for which he had asked to have him imprisoned had diminished (especially the risk of hindering the investigation).
He will be prohibited from leaving the country and from communicating with several consulate and embassy officials, as ordered by Judge Alejandro Asteggiante. In addition, he will be obliged to establish an address and appear at the section once a week.
Initially, the prosecutor in the case, Gabriela Fossati, requested a bail of US$ 50,000, but the former chief’s lawyer, Florencio Macedo, asked the family – who was also present at the hearing – if they could afford it. The parents replied that the best effort they could make is US$25,000 and the prosecutor accepted it.
In turn, Macedo contested Fossati’s request that he be prevented from communicating with officials for 180 days, given that, in view of a possible oral trial, Di Conza’s defense would have to consult them in order to produce their own evidence. Finally, Asteggiante defined that this ban be maintained for 90 days.
The name of Di Conza was cited by the notary public Álvaro Fernández and by the Russian citizen Alexey Slivaev – also participants in the group that Astesiano was part of for the forgery of passports. Both pointed to the ex-consul as one of those who “provided citizenship” to Russian citizens.
