The Brussels Court of First Instance has extended for one month the provisional detention for Eva Kaili, the vice-president of the European Parliament, dismissed after her indictment in the corruption case being investigated by the Belgian Public Prosecutor’s Office for the alleged payment of bribes from Qatar to MEPs and parliamentary assistants.
Kaili appeared in court early in the morning in a hearing held a week later than the other defendants, as the Greek Socialist requested an adjournment to prepare his defense.
Kaili’s lawyers informed at the end of the hearing that she had requested that she be granted probation. They stressed that their client is cooperating with the investigation and rejected all corruption charges.
However, the court has decided to keep the Greek politician in custody for at least another month in a decision that the defendant can appeal within 24 hours, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Kaili’s defense requested this morning before the judge her probation with electronic bracelet since, as argued by her lawyers, she is collaborating with the investigation and did not participate in the corrupt network.
In statements to the press at the Palace of Justice in Brussels, one of his lawyers, André Risopoulos, reported earlier that they have requested for Kaili the «telematic surveillance regime».
Likewise, the lawyer also exposed that his defendant rejects «all the charges of corruption» that are imputed to her and that she is «actively participating» in the investigation, although he did not give more details of the hearing, held behind closed doors, annoyed by the leaks of the case that have been to the press and that the Belgian Prosecutor’s Office is already investigating.
According to details of the investigation published during the week by the newspaper ‘Le Soir’, Kaili has admitted to investigators that he asked his father to hide part of the thousands of euros that were in his home, although he denies having participated in the criminal organization that moved the bribes.
Kaili is charged with membership of a criminal organization, corruption and money laundering, as are her partner, Italian MEP assistant Francesco Giorgi, and former Socialist MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, both of whom are in custody. A fourth defendant is also on probation.
Giorgi, for whom the Court confirmed the pre-trial detention on the 14th, has confessed before the examining magistrate his participation in an organization that allegedly received bribes from Qatar and Morocco to gain political and economic weight in the EU through its influence in the European Parliament.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
