Man ordered to take psychiatric test after giving couple €100,000

An Italian man has been ordered to take a psychiatric test after gifting a Roma woman and her husband €100,000. The gift was a way of thanking the couple for their friendship and support when his mother died, a court in Udine heard on Thursday.

The couple were named as Monica Braidic, 26, and Shwan A Hamah Rasheed, a 25-year-old from Iraq. In a statement to the court, the 47-year-old man from Villa Santina, who is also godfather to the couple's daughter, said the gift came from the proceeds of the sale of his home.



"I donated that money after reflecting on my life," he said. "They demonstrated closeness and comfort towards me a few years ago, when my mother died." But for prosecutor Paola De Francheschi, the act of generosity was too good to be true.

She argued that the couple took advantage of the benefactor's "poor mental or physical health" and ordered a psychiatric assessment of the man. The case came to light when Italy’s financial police probed cash transfers to Iraq over suspected money laundering after the couple sent some of the money to help family there.