Antonio Panzeri, the alleged ringleader of the European Parliament corruption plot for receiving bribes from Qatar and Morocco, may be released from prison, his lawyer has announced. From now on, he will be under house arrest and will have to wear an electronic bracelet.
The former MEP, accused of criminal association, corruption and money laundering and who was found 600,000 euros in cash at his home, will be able to leave prison four months after being arrested by the police. As his lawyer explained to the RTBF, a French-speaking public channel, Panzeri will be able to be released from prison in the next few days, although he will continue to be deprived of his liberty. “My client will not be able to leave his home, not even to take a half-hour walk. He can only ask to leave him for urgent matters or exceptional reasons, ”explained his defense.
Last January Panzeri, who after passing through the European Parliament founded the NGO "Fight Impunity", reached an agreement with the prosecutor's office in which he accepted the statute of "repentant" -similar to the figure that exists in Italy with members of the mafia – in which he promised to cooperate with the investigation and make “substantial and revealing” statements about the corruption plot. In return, the Italian could get some kind of benefit from his conviction.
Now, he will continue under police surveillance and must continue declaring as a repentant statute. “I think that since he [Panzeri] has given information about the case, and that there has been relative collaboration, the council chamber has accepted an alternative modality to outright preventive detention. Is it tied to his repentant statute? Yes and no. Above all, it is because he has collaborated ”, explained the defense.
At the moment, the former vice president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, is still in prison, despite her requests to leave. Her partner, Francesco Georgi (and who was Panzeri's assistant when he was an MEP and his right-hand man) was able to leave a month ago with an electronic bracelet. Recently, another Belgian socialist MEP Marc Tarabella was arrested in connection with the plot and Niccolo Figà-Talamanca, leader of an NGO, is also following.
The macro-raid in which Kaili, Giorgi, the lobbyist Nicola Figa-Talamanca and Panzeri were arrested at the beginning of December, allowed the police to seize more than one and a half million euros in cash of allegedly corrupt origin, in addition to computers and mobile phones.
