The Belgian justice has confirmed Thursday the provisional detention of the Greek Socialist MEP Eva Kaili, charged six weeks ago for her alleged involvement in the bribery scheme paid by Qatar and Morocco to gain influence in the EU institutions.
Kaili, who held one of the vice-presidencies of the European Parliament until she was dismissed because of the corruption scandal, denies her involvement in the facts and her lawyers had asked for her release.
However, the Prosecutor’s Office asked for her to be kept in prison because of the risk of trial and the risk of destruction of evidence, according to Kaili’s lawyers in statements to the press who attended the Court.
Finally, the Chamber of the Council of Brussels (court of first instance) has heard the arguments of the Prosecutor’s Office and «confirmed the remand», as reported by the prosecution itself in a statement.
In addition to the Greek socialist remain in custody three other defendants charged with participation in criminal organization, money laundering and corruption, including his partner, parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi, and Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, head of the NGO ‘No Peace without Justice’.
The fourth defendant is the former Socialist MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, founder of the NGO ‘Fight Impunity’ through which contacts were made with MEPs, and considered the ‘ringleader’ of the plot.
This same week, the Federal Prosecutor’s Office announced an agreement with Panzeri by which he agrees to confess the details of the corruption, from the ‘modus operandi’ of the network to the names of those to whom he has paid bribes, in exchange for reducing his sentence to a five-year prison term of which he will only serve one year in prison.
Also this week, the European Parliament has formally launched the procedure to process the request of the Belgian Justice to suspend the parliamentary immunity of two socialist deputies, the Belgian Marc Tarabella and the Italian Andrea Cozzolino, to be investigated.
Cozzolino has left the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) European group to go to the non-attached list, while Tarabella has been suspended from the group after not accepting to leave the Social Democratic ranks.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
