The former vice president of the European Parliament Eva Kaili, imprisoned since last December accused of criminal organization, corruption and money laundering for her participation in the Qatargate plot, will remain in prison for at least two more months. In the case of MEP Marc Tarabella, who was arrested in February after the European Parliament stripped him of his immunity, the decision is for him to remain behind bars for at least a month, as reported by the Prosecutor’s Office in a statement.
The European Parliament keeps the fisheries agreement with Morocco in opacity
Further
This has been decided by the Belgian courts after the two socialist politicians appeared before the appeals court. It is the third time that the judges have rejected the release of Kaili, who was arrested despite having parliamentary immunity because the judge investigating the Qatargate case considered that he had caught her in flagrante delicto by notifying her father of the police operation. who was also arrested while trying to flee from a central Brussels hotel with a suitcase containing thousands of euros in banknotes. Her defense has come to denounce that the Greek suffers “torture” in jail.
Tarabella had also claimed his provisional release after being imprisoned two months later since the Belgian justice had to send a request to the European Parliament, which processed it expressly. The European Parliament lifted the immunity of Tarabella, who was arrested a few days later as the authorities carried out a series of searches at his home, a safe he had rented and the Anthisnes town hall, where he is mayor. . His address was one of those registered in the December operation, although on that occasion under the supervision of the president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, due to the immunity she enjoyed at that time. Tarabella will remain in prison for at least one more month.
The European Parliament also removed the immunity of the Italian Andrea Cozzolino. In his case, he is in his country under house arrest and his defense has managed to delay the extradition hearing until mid-March.
Both Kaili and Tarabella appeared before the appeals court after their request for release was rejected in an earlier instance. The one who has been granted parole is Francesco Giorgi, who is Kaili’s partner, who is on the street under the control of an electronic bracelet. Giorgi was Cozzolino’s parliamentary assistant and had previously been Pier Antonio Panzeri, who is considered the ringleader of the plot, although he has reached an agreement with the courts to pull the plug in exchange for a reduction in his sentence. Giorgi confessed to having been part of an organization used by both Morocco and Qatar with the aim of influencing European affairs: “I did it all for money I didn’t need.”
All of them are under the magnifying glass of justice accused of criminal organization, corruption and money laundering in the framework of an investigation into the payment of bribes in exchange for trying to influence the decisions that affected those two countries.
Brussels did not see a conflict of interest in the free trips of a director general to Qatar
Qatargate has raised a huge storm in the European institutions, which have promised more transparency and control measures, although their implementation is slow and, in most cases, they have not been activated.
One of the issues that the European Commission is reviewing are the rules regarding conflicts of interest, as explained by the spokespersons when asked about free trips to Qatar by the Director General of Transport, Henrik Hololei. As revealed by Politico, he flew first class to Doha nine times between 2015 and 2021. Some of those trips occurred while market access was being negotiated by the emirate.
What the European Commission maintains is that the trips complied with the European Commission’s rules since they were authorized as they found no conflict of interest in Qatar paying for them. However, what the spokespersons have pointed out is that these rules are being reviewed “to make them more demanding.”