The Belgian Socialist MEP Marc Tarabella, whose immunity was suspended by the European Parliament last week at the request of the Belgian judiciary, has been charged on Saturday for the crimes of public corruption, money laundering and membership of a criminal organization in the framework of the corruption scheme known as Qatargate for the alleged payment of bribes by Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania to gain political and financial weight in the European Union.
Tarabella was arrested on Friday for questioning and has now been remanded in custody. In the framework of the same investigation, another MEP, Andrea Cozzolino, who was also stripped of his immunity on February 2, has been arrested.
«He was the subject of an international arrest warrant, he has been arrested and we are awaiting his extradition», explained a spokesman for the Belgian authorities, Eric van der Sijpt, quoted by RTBF television.
Tarabella and Cozzolino, fellow members of the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, are suspected of having favored the interference of Qatar and Morocco in the decisions of the European Parliament.
Tarabella was arrested at his home in Anthisnes, in the Liège region, where several searches were carried out on Friday morning, including a bank safe and his office in the Anthisnes Town Hall, of which he is mayor. Cozzolino was arrested in Naples (Italy) at the exit of a clinic where he underwent a medical examination.
Who is considered the ringleader of the corrupt network, the former Italian socialist MEP Antonio Panzeri, points to Tarabella as the recipient of between 120,000 and 140,000 euros in exchange for softening his position on the World Cup in Qatar. The latter defends that he has not participated in such corrupt acts.
Already in December, when the Police made the first arrests in connection with the bribery network, Tarabella’s apartment was searched by investigators, who found nothing relevant although they seized computer material.
The vice-president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, her partner and MEP advisor, Francesco Giorgi, and two other people have been charged with participating in a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption.
Panzeri, for his part, has reached an agreement with the Prosecutor’s Office to confess all the details of the scheme and to point out those who collected the bribes in exchange for a reduction in the sentences requested against him from five to one year in prison.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
