The potential bribery scheme orchestrated by Qatar in the European Parliament has some family business elements, both in the case of Greek Socialist MEP and vice-president of the institution Eva Kaili and former Italian Social Democrat MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri. Kaili, whose situation yesterday was confusing because as a parliamentarian she has immunity and can only be arrested if she is caught in flagrante delicto, is finally one of the five people arrested yesterday in Brussels, investigated for criminal organization, corruption and money laundering.
Another of them is her father, who was caught while fleeing with several bags full of cash, sources familiar with the investigation have confirmed to La Vanguardia. His accomplices would have warned him of the macro-raid carried out first thing in the morning at various points in the community capital. The agents of the anti-corruption unit of the Belgian Public Ministry have not yet quantified the money seized but it is about large sums, which are added to the almost 600,000 found in another investigated address.
The third detainee is Kalli's partner, with whom she has a one-year-old baby. The man, who according to the Belgian press responds to the acronym F.G., is an adviser to the socialist group in the European Parliament and previously worked as a parliamentary assistant to Panzeri, who left his seat in 2019 but had remained closely linked to the institution through his lobbying work for the NGO Fight Immunity, dedicated to the fight against impunity for serious violations of human rights or crimes against humanity; The NGO, which has its headquarters at the gates of the European quarter, is one of the addresses registered by the Belgian police.
The wife and daughter of the former deputy, Maria Colleoni and Silvia Panzeri, were also arrested on Friday in Italy in compliance with a European arrest warrant issued by Belgium, reports the Efe agency, citing information released by the Italian press. Both have testified today before the judge in Bergamo. Both are in custody awaiting the decision of the Italian court on the petition issued by the Belgian judicial authorities.
Both Kaili and Panzeri have been expelled from their respective parties, PASOK in the case of the Greek and Partito Democratico in the case of the Italian. The European socialists in the European Parliament have suspended Kaili's membership in the group while PASOK, which he represents in Strasbourg since 2014, demands that he resign his seat. The Greek MEP was in charge of relations with the Middle East and recently traveled to Qatar to meet with the country's labor minister, Samikh Al Marri.
Marri has maintained an intense schedule of contacts in recent months with members of the European Parliament and other public figures coinciding with the Soccer World Cup to defend the alleged advances in human rights in the emirate. This fall she also met with the then secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation, Luca Visentini, who currently heads the organization internationally and who, according to the Belgian press, is the fifth detainee in the Brussels operation.
Late on Friday, the Belgian police entered the headquarters of the European Parliament, practically empty at the time, and searched the offices of the assistants of two Belgian socialist MEPs of Italian origin, Marc Tarabella, very active in recent months in the Qatar defense, and Maria Arena. According to the statement published yesterday by the Belgian Prosecutor's Office, the modus operandi of the plot consisted in the delivery of "substantial sums of money or important gifts" to people with key political or strategic positions in the European Parliament.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has published a Twitter message today in which she assures that the institution "stands firm against corruption" and promises to cooperate "fully with the relevant police and judicial authorities" to clarify what happened. The scandal is a serious blow to the image of the European Parliament, the institution most valued by citizens according to the Eurobarometer and a strong scourge against attacks on the rule of law in member states such as Hungary or Poland. Chamber sources wonder with what authority they are now going to criticize these countries while crossing their fingers that the shock wave from Qatargate does not reach much further.
