Brussels investigating judge Michel Claise, who is continuing his investigations into “Qatargate”, the corruption scandal that has stained the European Parliament and also involves Morocco, decided on Saturday February 11 to place the Belgian MEP in preventive detention. Mark Tarabella. Even if he has claimed his innocence from the start, this 59-year-old elected socialist, also mayor of Anthisnes, near Liège, was imprisoned in Brussels until at least Thursday February 16. He was indicted for “corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization”.
In Naples, the Italian police arrested the same day another elected socialist, Andrea Cozzolino. He was placed under house arrest pending a court decision on Tuesday on his possible extradition to Belgium. Former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, the main figure in the group, claims to have given Mr Tarabella paper bags containing a total of 120,000 to 140,000 euros to change his positions on Qatar and the organization of the FIFA World Cup. The Belgian elected denies having received money and his lawyer, Me Maxim Töller, deplores, aiming at Mr. Panzeri, that “the defamation of a person recognized as the head of a criminal organization could cause such a tsunami and unjustly smear Mr. Tarabella”.
“The self-serving and handsomely rewarded word of one person should never be enough to put someone in jail”, we lovee Toller. Mr. Panzeri admitted to being an active corrupter and obtained from the Belgian justice the status of repentant in exchange for a full confession which will earn him a reduced sentence and a partial reprieve for the fine of 80,000 euros which will be imposed on him.
Long questioned in recent weeks, he has undoubtedly delivered evidence against Mr. Tarabella. The latter, who had severely criticized the organization of a leading sporting event in Qatar, taking into account in particular the working conditions imposed on the construction sites of the World Cup, had surprised, in November 2022, by evoking this time THE ” progress ” made by the emirate regarding workers’ rights. He also failed to report, contrary to the rules of Parliament, a trip to Doha, paid for by Qatar, in 2020.
Immunity waived by Parliament
The plenary assembly of the Parliament had voted, on February 2, the lifting of the immunity of the Belgian deputy, as well as that of Andrea Cozzolino, a close friend of Mr. Panzeri, to whom he succeeded at the head of parliamentary bodies in Strasbourg, including the delegation for the Maghreb.
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