Triple Citizenship

A quote from the Italian press agency AKI, 22 August 2008

Morocco has recalled its Ambassador to Italy, Tajeddine Baddou, to protest against the imprisonment of a Moroccan senator Yahya Yahya in the Italian capital, Rome. […] [Moroccan-born Italian MP Souad] Sbai says that maybe Yahya was not in Italy to "do shopping", but instead to organise an "extremist group", something that she finds "extremely alarming."

Yahya Yahya was sentenced to two years and three months for 'breaching the peace' and for aggression against a public official in early August. […] Yahya Yahya represents Melilla, a city under Spanish control claimed by Morocco, and is known for his activism for Melilla's return to Moroccan sovereignty.

Yahya is understood to hold Moroccan, Spanish and Dutch citizenship. Last June in Spain, he was sentenced by a tribunal in the Spanish enclave of Melilla to one year and three months after attacking Spanish border police. At the time, the Moroccan government obtained his immediate release.

Perhaps, perhaps, perhaps...

Perhaps the gentleman whose name sounds like the opening refrain to a famous Carmen Miranda song was in Rome, shopping for Italian citizenship, which would go together quite nicely with the rest of his collection.