Five people were arrested Friday, December 9 in a police raid against the backdrop of a corruption case involving Qatar. Among those arrested are officials of the European Parliament. Investigators suspect Doha of paying money and handing out gifts to lawmakers to sway the European Union’s economic policies in its favor.
► Who are the personalities arrested?
A total of five people were arrested on Friday. Among them is a vice-president of the European Parliament, Greek Socialist MEP Eva Kaili (“dismissed” in the evening of his Pasok-Kinal party), and a former Italian MEP from the ranks of the left Pier-Antonio Panzeri.
Three other people, all of Italian nationality, were also arrested: Francesco Giorgi, parliamentary assistant and companion of Eva Kaili, trade union leader Luca Visentini and an NGO director.
The police operation gave rise to sixteen searches in total in various municipalities of the Belgian capital, where the European Parliament has its headquarters. During the operation, the police seized “around €600,000 in cash”as well as “computer equipment and mobile phones” whose contents will be analyzed.
► What do we know about the case?
These arrests were made as part of a corruption investigation involving Qatar, which is splashing the European legislative body. If the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office does not name the ” Gulf States “ suspected by the courts, several media have revealed that it would be Qatar.
The investigation, led for four months by a Brussels financial judge, targets acts of « corruption » and of “money laundering” in an organized gang, underlined the federal prosecutor’s office in a press release. Doha is suspected of“to influence the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament, by paying substantial sums of money or by offering important gifts”, he continues. As for the beneficiaries, they are personalities with “a significant political and/or strategic position” within Parliament.
“This is not an isolated incident”responded the organization Transparency International. “For several decades, Parliament has allowed a culture of impunity to develop (…) and a total absence of independent ethical control”.
► Pro Qatari positions
European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili had met in Qatar shortly before the start of the FIFA World Cup with Qatari Labor Minister Ali bin Samikh Al Marri. The Greek elected representative hailed on this occasion, on behalf of the EU, Qatar’s commitment to “pursue labor reforms”according to a tweet from the Union’s Ambassador to Doha Cristian Tudor.
“Today, the FIFA World Cup in Qatar is concrete proof of how sports diplomacy can achieve a historic transformation of a country whose reforms have inspired the Arab world”also declared Eva Kaili at the podium of the European Parliament on November 22. “Qatar is a leader in labor rights”she said, while 6,500 workers have died in the country on construction sites since the awarding of the competition to Doha, according to the British daily The Guardian.
The Qatari authorities strongly denied these figures. And the International Labor Organization (ILO), present in Doha since 2018, has documented fifty fatal work accidents of employees over one year, in 2020, and 500 serious injuries. However, she noted the lack of available data.