A spokesman for Belgium’s federal prosecutor said: “We are carrying out those searches in a case of possible money laundering and corruption.” He declined to give further details.
Karaziwan did not comment when contacted by telephone. “Stop your dramas … Thank you and goodbye,” he said before hanging up. A lawyer for Semlex did not respond to an emailed request for comment.
Earlier this week, authorities in the Comoros, a country where Semlex has supplied identity documents since 2007, cancelled 170 passports that the government said had been improperly issued to foreigners, including many Iranians. The passports, supplied by Semlex, had been issued between 2013 and 2016 by a previous government.
The current government of the Comoros last week also withdrew a diplomatic passport issued to Karaziwan by a previous administration that had appointed him a roving ambassador.
The action by authorities in Belgium and the Comoros follows two Reuters reports examining the activities of Semlex in Africa, where the private Belgian firm has landed contracts worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Semlex and Karaziwan did not respond to requests for comment on those reports.
Last April, Semlex won a contract to produce biometric passports in Democratic Republic of Congo. The deal greatly increased the price citizens had to pay for passports, and documents showed a Gulf company owned by a relative of DR Congo’s president received a significant chunk of the revenues.
Soon afterwards, Belgian prosecutors said they were investigating the deal.
According to emails, contracts, and other documents, Semlex secured deals through political connections, at times without going through public tenders, and sometimes while making payments to intermediaries. Karaziwan was involved in the sale of Comorian citizenship via a Dubai-based company, according to sources familiar with the matter.
A week after an article was published, Semlex issued a statement saying it had no role in the issuing of passports. It said that role was purely the prerogative of the local authorities.
Comorian authorities continue to investigate the matter. The government said it has sought help from Interpol and the United States for more information about some foreigners who had bought Comorian passports.
Between 5,000 and 10,000 Comorian passports may have been bought by foreigners who underwent minimal vetting, a Western diplomat in the region told Reuters this week. “There was no way of knowing who people were,” the official said. “We are concerned this is being used to skirt Iranian sanctions.”
A list of Comorian passports cancelled this week indicates that many were held by Iran-born foreigners.