(Brussels) Belgian justice on Tuesday recorded the continued detention of an NGO leader and a former Socialist MEP, the Italian Pier-Antonio Panzeri, charged in an investigation for corruption in the European Parliament involving Qatar .
The two men were arrested on December 9 at the same time as a vice-president of the institution, the Greek socialist MEP Eva Kaili, and her companion, the Italian parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi.
These four personalities have been charged with “belonging to a criminal organization”, “money laundering” and “corruption”, in a scandal that has caused shock waves in the European Parliament and tensions between Qatar and the EU.
The Brussels council chamber had decided, on December 14, to keep MM. Panzeri and Giorgi, then made the same decision last Thursday regarding Mme Kaili.
The Brussels Indictments Chamber examined Pier-Antonio Panzeri’s appeal against this decision on Tuesday. Finally, “at the request” of Mr. Panzeri himself, “the processing of the file was postponed to January 17”, indicated the federal prosecutor’s office, which confirms the continued imprisonment of the former MEP.
In addition, the fourth defendant, Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, an Italian responsible for the NGO “No Peace Without Justice”, was granted release on December 14 on an electronic bracelet, but the measure was suspended because the prosecution Federal had appealed.
On Tuesday, the indictment chamber decided to “replace the modality of the electronic bracelet […] by a simple extension of preventive detention”, according to the prosecution – “a disappointment”, recognized his lawyer Barbara Huylebroek.
For their part, Francesco Giorgi had not appealed against his continued detention, and Eva Kaili’s lawyers have indicated that they have no intention of doing so.
In Belgium, the investigation gave rise to twenty searches between December 9 and 12, including within the European Parliament. In total, Belgian investigators got their hands on 1.5 million euros in cash, according to a judicial source.
Some 600,000 euros were seized from the home of Mr. Panzeri, who had founded in 2019 in Brussels, at the end of his mandates as MEP, the NGO Fight Impunity. His wife and daughter, targeted by a European arrest warrant, were arrested in Italy, where they are challenging their surrender to Belgium.
Stripped of her title of Vice-President of the European Parliament in mid-December, Eva Kaili continues to deny having received money from Qatar to influence her political decisions, her lawyer accusing Mr. Giorgi of having “betrayed the trust” of His wife.
According to a judicial source, bags filled with banknotes worth 150,000 euros were discovered in the Brussels apartment of Mme Kaili, and her father were caught with a suitcase containing 750,000 euros in cash.