Greece is holding an emergency nationwide fraud investigation into birth certificates sparked by the case of the young girl found living in a gypsy camp.
Supreme Court prosecutor Efterpi Koutzamani ordered the inquiry for certificates issued after January 1, 2008 amid reports of benefit fraud by families declaring births in multiple regions.
The case has given hope to a US couple whose daughter Lisa Irwin was kidnapped from their Kansas City home two years ago. The couple has contacted authorities in Greece who are trying to solve the mystery surrounding the blonde girl found in the Roma camp.
Jeremy Irwin and Deborah Bradley, whose 10-month-old daughter Lisa Irwin disappeared in October 2011, got in touch with the Smile of a Child charity that is heading up the hunt for the girl’s biological parents, a spokesman confirmed yesterday.
Meanwhile, the mayor of Athens has suspended three officials in charge of record-keeping.
New parents have three months to declare the births. Investigators found many babies had been recently declared at or near the end of that deadline, raising suspicions some were multiple declarations to claim benefits.
A Roma couple are being held in custody charged with abduction and document fraud in the case of the girl known only as Maria.
The girl, believed to be five or six, was taken into protective care last week after DNA tests established the couple were not her biological parents.
Christos Salis, 39, and Eleftheria Dimopoulou, 40, deny the abduction allegations, claiming they received the child from a destitute woman to bring up as their own.