He has not yet opened his mouth, but his revelations already promise to be startling. Former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, a key suspect currently imprisoned, agreed on Tuesday to collaborate with Belgian justice and to deliver what he knows about this alleged corruption scandal for the benefit of Qatar.
A central character
Pier Antonio Panzeri is a central figure in the investigation. First elected in 2004, the 67-year-old has worked most of his career as an EU legislator specializing in employment, social rights, foreign affairs, global security and development aid . the Italian chaired the delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries from 2009 to 2017, recalls Euronews.
In September 2019, just months after the European elections, Pier Antonio Panzeri founded a non-profit organization in Brussels called Fight Impunity, whose stated aim is to “promote the fight against impunity for serious human rights violations”. man and crimes against humanity”.
He was arrested in Brussels on December 9, the day also of the arrest of a vice-president of the European Parliament, the Greek socialist Eva Kaili, and of an Italian parliamentary assistant, Francesco Giorgi, companion of the elected official.
In detention since December
During this crackdown, the Belgian police discovered 600,000 euros in cash at his Brussels home, according to a judicial source. Since then, the man has been kept in pre-trial detention and has been charged, like Eva Kaili, as well as her spouse, and an NGO official, Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, with “belonging to a criminal organization”, “money laundering » and « corruption » for the benefit of Qatar, in this scandal which caused a shock wave in the European Parliament and tensions between the Gulf emirate and the European Union.
As a reminder, the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office suspects Qatar of having “attempted to influence the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament (…) by paying substantial sums of money or offering significant gifts to third parties with a political position and/or strategic within the European Parliament”.
His daughter soon to be extradited
Pier Antonio Panzeri’s family is also in turmoil. Belgian justice issued last December a European arrest warrant against the daughter of the former MEP and the Court of Appeal of Brescia (Lombardy) gave the green light to his extradition on January 17. Silvia Panzeri and her mother, Maria Dolores Colleoni, are both charged with conspiracy, corruption and money laundering and are under house arrest in Italy. According to Euronews, the Belgian authorities believe that they were aware of the illicit lobbying around which the father of the family is suspected of gravitating.
More than 240,000 euros were seized from Silvia Panzeri’s personal account as well as from a joint account with her parents, which her lawyers described as “fees, fruit of her professional activity”. She could be transferred to the prison of Haren, in Belgium, where the former vice-president of the European Parliament Eva Kaili is currently detained.
A status of repentance
On Tuesday, Pier Antonio Panzeri signed an agreement with the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office providing that he will now collaborate with investigators in exchange for a “limited” prison sentence. His lawyer Laurent Kennes told AFP that this sentence negotiated with the prosecution would not exceed one year. “A sentence of five years will be pronounced, but with a reprieve for the part exceeding one year. This means that he will undergo a year in detention, part of which under an electronic bracelet, ”said Me Kennes.
The former deputy therefore obtains the status of repentant, for the second time in history, and undertakes, via this memorandum, to inform the courts on “the modus operandi, the financial arrangements with third countries, the financial constructions put in place, the beneficiaries of the structures put in place and benefits offered, the involvement of people known or not yet known in the file, including the identity of the people he admits to having corrupted…”.
Italian used as “entry point”
Concretely, he will now have to explain the origin of these funds and the precise object of the corruption. “He wants to unpack, he wants to see the end of the tunnel,” said his lawyer. According to the press, Morocco used the Italian official as an entry point to support its interests in the European Parliament. But like Qatar, the Cherifian kingdom has strongly contested these allegations of corruption.
The draft agreement between Pier Antonio Panzeri and the federal prosecutor has yet to be validated by the council chamber, the judicial review of the investigation in Belgium. If confirmed, the politician will be able to reveal what he knows.
12,000 euros paid to one of his colleagues
According to the newspaper L’Écho, he has already lifted the veil on negotiations. The former MEP told investigators that he gave more than 120,000 euros in cash to his colleague Marc Tarabella (PS), for his help in Qatar-related cases.
But the person concerned has defended himself from the start of having received the slightest gift from the Gulf country. “Mr. Tarabella is very clear, he has never received the slightest promise, the slightest money, the slightest gift, in any form whatsoever, against the fact of supporting Qatar in any way whatsoever”, assured his lawyer Maxime Töller.