(Brussels) The Belgian judge in charge of the alleged corruption case in the European Parliament involving Qatar and Morocco was forced on Thursday to withdraw temporarily due to a request for recusal from a suspect who accuses him of “bias” , said lawyers.
The request is made by the Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, charged and imprisoned on Saturday in the investigation led by the examining magistrate Michel Claise.
It was announced Thursday by his lawyer Maxim Töller during a hearing in Brussels before a court responsible for ruling on the extension of the pre-trial detention.
At the end of this closed hearing, the judges decided to extend the detention of Mr. Tarabella, according to the federal prosecution. Same scenario for Greek MEP Eva Kaili who has been imprisoned for more than two months in this case.
Lawyers for the two suspects pleaded for their conditional release. As of Thursday evening, the defense of Mr. Tarabella announced to appeal the decision of the council chamber.
The hearing was delayed for several hours. As a result of Mr. Claise’s request for recusal early in the morning, it was necessary to find another investigating judge to replace him at this stage of the procedure, it was explained.
“Mr. Claise can no longer be present” in this case, said lawyer Sven Mary, who defends Eva Kaili.
Judge Claise now has 48 hours to defend himself and, if he does not decide himself to withdraw, the Brussels Court of Appeal will have to decide within eight days, underlined Me Mary.
Four people are currently in pre-trial detention in Belgium, suspected of having interceded in favor of foreign powers in the decisions of the European Parliament.
They are Eva Kaili, Marc Tarabella – who deny the facts – and the Italians Francesco Giorgi, parliamentary assistant, companion of the Greek elected representative, and Pier Antonio Panzeri, former MEP (2004-2019), whose detention was also extended on Thursday.
A fifth suspect, Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino was arrested and then assigned to residence on February 11 in Italy, pending the examination of the arrest warrant issued against him by the Belgian courts.
Mr. Panzeri, who in 2019 became an NGO leader in Brussels, is the “repentant” of the file and its central figure.
He negotiated with the prosecution in January for a prison term limited to one year, in exchange for precise statements about the organization of the corruption system (which he admitted to having led) and the people involved.
Mr. Tarabella accuses Mr. Panzeri of having unfairly implicated him. The Belgian MEP’s lawyer also believes that the judge is relying on “suspicious fund movements” for his benefit which have never been materially proven.
“None of the searches [ciblant Marc Tarabella] did not turn out to be positive”, noted Me Töller on Thursday.
“Clearly, here, the presumption of innocence is violated […] The judge is clearly letting his opinion on the guilt of Mr. Tarabella be heard”, argued this lawyer to justify his request for recusal.