The Italian MEP Andrew Cozzolino was arrested this Friday at a clinic in Naples (south) following a warrant european arrest by belgian authoritiesin the framework of investigations by the plot of alleged bribes in the Eurochamber with Qatar y Morocco.
The Finance Guard (tax crime police) initially went to his home in the Neapolitan neighborhood of Vomero but did not locate him, although they later found him in a clinic where he was undergoing medical check-ups, local media reported.
There they notified him of his arrest and he will soon be transferred to preventive prison, according to public television RAI.
The Belgian authorities for their part proceeded this Friday to search your house in the Ixelles district of Brussels as well as his office in the European Parliament (EP).
Cozzolino, 60, and a former member of the Italian Communist Party, began his career in Europe in 2009 in the ranks of the Democratic Party – which has suspended him from membership – and in the European Social Democratic group.
Last week the EP withdrew his immunityas well as the also MEP Marc Tarabellaboth suspected of being involved in the bribery scheme in exchange for political influence in the European Parliament, allegedly linked to Qatar and Morocco.
The scandal broke out last December and primarily affected the then vice-president of the institution and a Greek social democrat Eva Kaili, arrested in flagrante delicto and charged from the time of the disclosures and arrests.
On the other hand, the former Italian Social Democratic MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, considered the ringleader of the alleged corruption plot, was also arrested, but has agreed to collaborate in the Belgian judicial investigation as “repentant” in exchange for reducing his sentence.
Panzeri’s wife and daughter, Maria Colleoni and Silvia Panzeriwere placed under house arrest in Milan (north) on December 10 accused of being aware of the actions of the MEP, but on January 26 the Italian Justice released them after Belgium renounced the delivery of both.
In addition to Panzeri and Kaili, the Belgian police arrested the sentimental couple of the Greek politician and parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi and the lobbyist and secretary general of the NGO No Peace Without Justice (Without peace there is no justice), Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, the latter released last week.