Eva Kaili risks spending Christmas in prison.

The Brussels council chamber, before which the former vice-president of the European Parliament appeared eleven days after the start of her imprisonment, refused the request for placement under an electronic bracelet and "extended the preventive detention of a month ".

The Greek MEP's lawyers have 24 hours to appeal the decision.

In this scandal which caused a shock wave in the European Parliament and tensions between Qatar and the EU, Eva Kaili is one of a quartet of suspects imprisoned after an indictment for "belonging to a criminal organization", "money laundering". 'money' and 'corruption'.



On December 14, it had already been decided to keep Francesco Giorgi, companion of the Socialist MEP, and former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri in prison, who also appear as key figures in the file.

Twenty searches, referral of 1.5 million euros in cash

According to a Belgian judicial source, bags filled with banknotes worth 150,000 euros were discovered in his apartment in Brussels.

But the MEP "did not know of the existence of this money", said her Greek lawyer, according to whom Francesco Giorgi would have "betrayed the trust" of his companion.

In Greece, the couple's joint bank account and 7,000 square meters of land were seized by the courts.

In Belgium, the investigation led by the financial judge Michel Claise gave rise to twenty searches between December 9 and 12, including in the premises of the European Parliament in Brussels.

In total, the investigators got their hands on 1.5 million euros in cash.

A former television news presenter who has become a controversial figure in the Greek Socialist Party (which excluded her from the first revelations), Eva Kaili continues to deny having received money from Qatar to influence her political decisions.

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  • Eva Kaili

  • European Parliament

  • Corruption

  • Qatar