The former vice president of the European Parliament admits that she ordered her father to hide more than half a million euros and that she saw her husband “pass suitcases with money” through the family apartment
The former vice president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, has admitted her alleged involvement in the bribery scheme known as ‘Qatargate’. Two days before her appearance before the judge, scheduled for this Thursday, the Greek socialist MEP has acknowledged that she ordered her father to hide part of the money that she and her partner, the assistant Francesco Giorgi, had supposedly collected thanks to their activities for this network. , linked to Qatar and Morocco, who paid with wads of bills and gifts for the creation of a current of opinion favorable to both countries in the community institutions. The father, who had arrived days before in Brussels, was surprised by the Police when he was leaving a central hotel in the Belgian capital with half a million euros hidden in a suitcase.
Kaili has been detained in Haren prison since the 9th, an unfortunate date for community organizations when corruption within them became evident for the first time. The president of the Eurocámara, Roberta Metsola, has announced a reform to induce control in this institution, although the leaders of the Twenty-seven consider that her reputation has been touched. The scandal highlights the easy movement of the ‘lobbyists’, a dark background of travel, gifts and payments, which affects both members of European socialism and conservatives, and the apparent desire of “autocratic governments” to influence community decisions.
Giorgi already admitted last week in his court appearance that he was part of the plot, in which he was submerged, according to his version, by a kind of commitment to thank his political mentor: Pier Antonio Panzeri, former Italian socialist MEP whom those involved considered the leader of the network. Giorgi exonerated Eva Kaili in his statement and added that his wife should be free and “taking care” of their 18-month-old daughter. However, according to the examining magistrate Michael Claise, the vice president of Parliament has acknowledged that she “knew of her husband’s activity with Mr. Panzeri.” She even knew that “suitcases with tickets passed through her apartment,” says the Belgian newspaper ‘Le Soir’. In fact, the account given by the Belgian and Italian media highlights that Kaili “panicked” as soon as she saw that her partner was arrested and handcuffed as they left the family home on the 9th, when the dismantling of the plot.
In addition to the MEP, Giorgi and Panzeri spend these days in a cell. A fourth implicated, Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, general secretary of the NGO No Peace Without Justice, remains on provisional release subject to an electronic bracelet. The recorded conversations with Panzeri suggest that Talamanca received gifts from Rabat. The wife and daughter of the former MEP were also apparently in Morocco on trips to collect bribes.
Others involved
Eva Kaili has offered several partial confessions and is expected to offer a fuller account of the case on Thursday. From then on, the judge will decide if she keeps her in jail.
The researchers consider that the ‘Qatargate’ is only in an initial phase and do not rule out new and serious discoveries. Some sources cite that the accusations could exceed fifty people. For now, the confessions of the main people involved have already yielded a couple of new names, which are being investigated but on which no charges have been formalized. Kaili herself would have tried to warn two colleagues in the Chamber that there was an ongoing investigation after the arrest of her husband. One of the branches of the case consists of delving into the relations of the defendants with other parliamentarians and the statements that have been made in favor of the Qatari and Moroccan governments in recent months in the Chamber.
Apparently, Panzeri, also responsible for the NGO Fight Impunity, paid some 60,000 euros between 2021 and this year to Dimitris Avramopoulos, a former Greek European commissioner for the conservative New Democracy party. His lawyer has denied that Avramopoulos has any relationship with the shady business of ‘Qatargate’. The judge has not charged him, but if so, it would be the first verification that corruption would have reached the European Commission. Last week, the heads of Government and State of the Twenty-seven made every effort to separate the high community government body from the plot and confine the scandal exclusively to Parliament.
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