The Belgian police carried out an extensive raid early in the morning on Friday morning at various points in Brussels on suspicion of the existence of a criminal plot of corruption and money laundering in the European Parliament in favor of "a state of the Gulf", according to the Federal Prosecutor's Office. The country in question, maintain several Belgian media, is none other than Qatar, the organizer of the current World Cup. Four people have been detained since this morning - among them, a former MEP - and this afternoon the agents have questioned a fifth, the Greek socialist MEP Eva Kaili, vice-president of the European Parliament, as revealed by the newspaper Le Soir.
"For several months, investigators from the Federal Judicial Police have suspected that a Gulf country is trying to influence the government's economic and political decisions by delivering large sums of money or gifts" to people "with a political or strategic position. significant in the European Parliament", explained the Belgian Prosecutor's Office in a press release this afternoon. The agents have seized 600,000 euros in cash as well as computers and mobile phones that are going to be analyzed as part of the investigation.
The raid has taken place in the central district of Brussels, Ixelles, Scharbeek, Craihnem and Forest, where 19 searches have been carried out. The operation has focused in particular on parliamentary assistants who work in the institution, generally young graduates. According to the newspaper Le Soir and the weekly Knack, among those arrested are two "public personalities", the former Social Democrat MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri and the new secretary of the International Trade Union Confederation, Luca Visentini. According to the aforementioned media, the agents have searched the headquarters of the NGO Fight Impunity, chaired by Panzeri.
Another of those arrested this morning is, according to Le Soir, a former parliamentary assistant to Panzeri, who is also a partner of the Greek MEP Eva Kaili, 44, a member of the chamber since 2014 and vice president of the institution. His address was searched this afternoon and the agents proceeded to question Kaili, a former Greek television presenter. Parliamentary immunity prevents members of the institution from being detained unless they are caught committing a crime. The Belgian prosecutor's office has confirmed this information, says the Belgian daily.
The objective of Qatar would be to obtain support to defend the alleged advances in respect for the human rights and working conditions of immigrants, put into question on the occasion of the Soccer World Cup, a controversial decision by FIFA marked in turn by the stain of corruption The other major topic of recent debate in relation to the emirate has been the proposal to eliminate the obligation for Qataris to travel with a visa to Europe, a decision approved this month by the Liberties committee that the full Parliament is scheduled to vote on next week.
The four detainees are suspected of belonging to a criminal organization, corruption and money laundering. The investigation aims to clarify whether the practices of the Gulf state in question have gone beyond the rules of the legal lobby. It so happens that today is the International Day of the fight against Corruption.
