Former European Parliament vice-president admits ordering her father to hide more than half a million euros and seeing her husband pass ‘suitcases of money’ through the family apartment
Former European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili has admitted her alleged involvement in the bribery scheme known as ‘Qatargate’. Two days before her appearance in court, scheduled for next Thursday, the Greek Socialist MEP admitted that she had ordered her father to hide part of the money she and her partner, the assistant Francesco Giorgi, had allegedly collected thanks to their activities for this network. , allied with Qatar and Morocco, who paid wads of bills and gifts for creating an opinion favorable to both countries in the community institutions. The father, who had arrived in Brussels days earlier, was surprised by the police when he left a centrally located hotel in the Belgian capital with half a million euros hidden in a suitcase.
Kaili has been incarcerated in Haren Prison since the 9th, an unfortunate date for community organizations when corruption within them first became apparent. The president of the Eurocámara, Roberta Metsola, has announced a reform to gain control in this institution, although the leaders of the Twenty-Seven believe their reputation has been tarnished. The scandal highlights the easygoing movement of the “lobbyists”, a dark background of travel, gifts and payments, which affects members of European socialism and conservatives alike, and the apparent desire of “autocratic governments” to influence community decisions.
Giorgi already admitted in his trial last week that he was part of the conspiracy, in which he was plunged, according to his version, by a kind of commitment to thank his political mentor: Pier Antonio Panzeri, former Italian socialist MEP whom those involved they consider the leader of the network. Giorgi acquitted Eva Kaili in his statement, adding that his wife should be free and “take care” of their 18-month-old daughter. However, according to examining magistrate Michael Claise, the deputy speaker of parliament has acknowledged that she “knew about her husband’s activities with Mr. Panzeri”. He even knew that ‘suitcases with tickets went through his apartment’, says the Belgian newspaper ‘Le Soir’. The Belgian and Italian media report even highlights that Kaili “panicked” as soon as she saw her partner arrested and handcuffed as she left the family home on the 9th, when the plot was dismantled.
Giorgi and Panzeri are now in a cell next to the MEP. A fourth person involved, Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, secretary general of the NGO No Peace Without Justice, has been provisionally released subject to an electronic bracelet. The recorded conversations with Panzeri suggest that Talamanca received gifts from Rabat. The wife and daughter of the former MEP were apparently also traveling in Morocco to collect bribes.
Eva Kaili has made several partial confessions and is expected to provide a fuller account of the case on Thursday. After that, the judge decides whether she will stay in prison.
The researchers believe that the ‘Qatargate’ is still in its early stages and do not rule out new and serious discoveries. Some sources state that the allegations could be more than fifty people. For now, the confessions of the main people involved have already yielded a number of new names, which are being investigated but for which no charges have been filed. Kaili herself would have tried to warn two colleagues in the Chamber that an investigation is underway after her husband’s arrest. One of the branches of the case is to delve into the relations of the defendants with other parliamentarians and the statements made in the House in recent months in favor of the Qatari and Moroccan governments.
Panzeri, also responsible for the NGO Fight Impunity, is said to have paid around 60,000 euros between 2021 and this year to Dimitris Avramopoulos, a former Greek European commissioner for the conservative New Democracy party. His lawyer has denied that Avramopoulos has any connection to the shady affairs of ‘Qatargate’. The judge has not charged him, but if so, it would be the first verification that corruption has reached the European Commission. Last week, the heads of government and state of the Twenty-Seven did everything they could to separate the community’s high government body from the plot and limit the scandal to parliament alone.
Source: La Verdad
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