Former Vice-President of the European Parliament denies taking bribes from Qatar at her first judicial hearing and rejects her participation in the corrupt plot involving three other EU figures
The Belgian judiciary ordered on Wednesday that former Vice-President of the European Parliament Eva Kaili remains detained. The Court of First Instance of Brussels, where the first hearing took place behind closed doors, has decided to reject his lawyers’ appeal to grant him a probationary period with an electronic bracelet given his “active” cooperation in the investigations into the case of corruption. known as ‘Qatar Gate’. Her attempts to distance herself from the plot by assuring that she is “innocent” and that she has never taken a bribe from Qatar served no purpose for the former Greek TV presenter.
In statements to journalists gathered outside the Palace of Justice in Brussels, one of Kaili’s lawyers, André Risopoulos, reported that his client had rejected “all charges of corruption” against him, noting that they had requested the “regime of telematic surveillance” . . Risopoulos declined to provide more details about his client’s appearance, which came a week after that of the other three defendants after Kaili requested an adjournment. He did emphasize that his client is “actively participating” in the investigations and was visibly angry about the leaked case that has come to the press and that the Belgian public prosecutor’s office is investigating.
According to information published earlier this week by the Belgian newspaper ‘Le Soir’, Kaili allegedly admitted that he had asked his father to hide 600,000 euros in cash. The fact that he agreed to transfer that money in a suitcase to the hotel where he stayed in the Belgian capital was what enabled the police to arrest the MEP despite her immunity, as she was believed to have a blatant committed offense. Bags full of banknotes worth 150,000 euros were also found in his apartment in Brussels.
“Kaili did not know about the existence of that money,” said Michalis Dimitrakopoulos on Wednesday, another member of the MEP’s legal team, who was sacked as European Parliament deputy representative on Tuesday over the scandal, although she keeps her seat. The lawyer directly accused his client’s husband, Italian MEP assistant Francesco Giorgi, whose pre-trial detention was confirmed by the judge on the 14th after confessing to participating in an organization that received bribes from Qatar and Morocco to promote political and economic gain weight. . According to Dimitrakopoulos, Giorgi “breached the trust” of his partner.
The instruction of Belgian magistrate Michel Claise has so far authorized twenty house searches in Belgium between December 9 and December 12, including the offices of the European Parliament. During these searches, the agents found 1.5 million euros in cash. Of these, 600,000 were found in the home of Pier Antonio Panzeri, a former socialist MEP who founded the NGO Fight Impunity in Brussels in 2019 and who is also being held in detention. Belgian justice has also requested the arrest of his wife and daughter, since, according to extracts from the warrants, they participated in the activities of the plot and in the transport of gifts. It is even revealed that Panzeri and his wife used the credit card of an unknown person whom they called ‘géant’ or giant.
The fourth person involved in the corrupt network is Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, general secretary of No Peace Without Justice, a non-profit organization that promotes human rights and democracy. The regime of provisional release with an electronic bracelet imposed on him has been suspended following an appeal by the public prosecutor’s office.
The scandal has not only done serious reputational damage to the EU institutions, but has also strained relations with Qatar, which has “resolutely” rejected allegations of corruption against the country and a possible “adverse effect” on its coveted supplies of natural gas threatens to cause.
Source: La Verdad
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