(Brussels) Greek Vice-President of the European Parliament Eva Kaili was charged with “corruption” on Sunday in Brussels, and imprisoned, in the investigation of a Belgian judge relating to large payments allegedly made by Qatar to influence decisions within this great EU institution.
A judicial source told AFP that Mr.me Kaili and three other people had been imprisoned by a Brussels judge, two days after their arrest in an investigation targeting the actions of the country organizing the World Cup-2022.
Mme Kaili could not benefit from his parliamentary immunity because the offense of which he is accused was found “in flagrante delicto”, explained the same judicial source. This source confirmed press reports that Mme Kaili, a 44-year-old former Greek television presenter, was in possession of “bags of tickets” on Friday evening when Belgian police arrested her.
The Brussels home of Mme Kaili was raided on Friday evening. And that of another socialist MEP, the Belgian Marc Tarabella, was on Saturday evening, added the judicial source.
To assist the federal police in this second search, the President of the European Parliament Roberta Metsola returned from Malta to Brussels in the evening, said one of her spokespersons. The presence of the president is required for such an act of investigation targeting a MEP elected in Belgium “as required by the Belgian Constitution”, it was explained.
On Sunday, the federal prosecutor’s office did not provide any names when announcing at midday these placements in pre-trial detention, decided after four charges for “belonging to a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption”.
Two other people among the six arrested in the past 48 hours have been released by the judge.
Among the six suspects arrested on Friday, after at least 16 searches in Brussels, were also the former Italian MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri and the general secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) Luca Visentini, also Italian.
According to the Belgian press, the own father of Mme Kaili himself was worried in the investigation, caught carrying a large sum of cash “in a suitcase”.
In this case, “is suspected the payment of large sums of money or the offer of significant gifts to third parties having a political and/or strategic position making it possible, within the European Parliament, to influence the decisions” of this institution, recalled the prosecution on Sunday.
The affair broke out in the middle of the 2022 World Cup, while the organizing country must make efforts to defend its decried reputation for respect for human rights, in particular those of workers.
It also comes on the eve of a plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where the relationship between the EU and Qatar should inevitably resurface in the debates.
Resignation requests
Eva Kaili went to Qatar in early November where she welcomed the reforms of the emirate in this sector in the presence of the Qatari Minister of Labor.
The EU ambassador to Doha Cristian Tudor then provided publicity on Twitter for this meeting, which was considered positive.
“Qatar is a leader in labor rights,” Mr.me Kaili on November 22 at the podium of the European Parliament.
These remarks, which had then caused a stir in the ranks of the left and the liberals, came back to the minds of many MEPs this weekend after the announcement of his arrest.
“I am now afraid to understand…”, commented on Saturday on Twitter the Frenchman Pierre Karleskind (Renew, liberals).
Monday in Strasbourg, the President of the European Parliament, the Maltese Roberta Metsola, called a meeting of the presidents of groups to discuss the Belgian judicial investigation, two sources in the Parliament told AFP on Sunday.
Green and Social Democrat MEPs will also oppose the start of negotiations on visa liberalization for Qataris in the EU.
Saturday night, M.me Metsola has decided on a first sanction against Eva Kaili. The Greek vice-president has been stripped of all the tasks delegated by Mme Metsola including that of representing it in the Middle East region.
Left-wing MEPs, including ecologist Philippe Lamberts on behalf of the Greens group in the European Parliament, have called for Ms.me Kaili, excluded on Friday evening from the Greek Socialist Party (Pasok-Kinal).