14.04.2023 11:45
(Akt. 14.04.2023 11:45)
Kaili happy to see her daughter again
©APA/AFP
Vice President Eva Kaili, who was deposed in the corruption scandal surrounding the European Parliament, has been released from a Belgian prison after a good four months. The 44-year-old Greek woman left Haren detention center in northern Brussels on Friday, an AFP reporter reported. The judiciary has ordered her to remain under house arrest in her Brussels apartment, where she is being monitored with an electronic tag.
“My daughter is waiting for me and I am very happy to be able to see her again,” Kaili told reporters about the reunion with her two-year-old child. She spoke in her native Greek and English as she pulled up in a black Mercedes with tinted windows in front of her home near the European Parliament in Brussels.
Kaili is believed to be the face of the Qatargate corruption scandal. Investigators accuse the former TV presenter of accepting gifts and bribes from Qatar. Kaili denies the allegations.
Kaili, her partner Francesco Giorgi and other suspects were arrested in early December as part of the corruption investigation. Investigators say they found pockets full of cash on Kaili’s property. According to Belgian judicial circles, the investigators found 150,000 euros in the shared apartment with Giorgi and another 750,000 euros from Kaili’s father in a Brussels hotel.
In total, the investigators secured 1.5 million euros during the searches. The European Parliament dismissed Kaili as Vice President in mid-December after the affair became known. She also lost the parliamentary seat of her socialist party Pasok in Greece.
With Kaili’s release, all five suspects in the scandal are now under house arrest. The Belgian judiciary accuses them of corruption, money laundering and membership in a criminal organization. In addition to Qatar, Morocco is said to have tried to influence EU policy with gifts of money. Both countries reject the allegations.