The investigation led by the Belgian federal prosecutor's office on "Qatargate" experienced a rebound this week which should allow investigators to make rapid progress.
Former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, who was arrested in Brussels on December 9, has decided to cooperate with the justice system.
His arrest took place at the same time as those of the elected Greek socialist Eva Kaili - then one of the vice-presidents of the European Parliament -, of her Italian parliamentary assistant, Francesco Giorgi - companion of Eva Kaili - and of Niccolo Figa- Talamanca, an Italian national responsible for NGOs.
In addition to these four people still in detention and indicted for "belonging to a criminal organization", "money laundering" and "corruption", two MEPs, Andrea Cozzolino and Marc Tarabella, are in the process of losing their immunity.
While the great unpacking has only just begun, France 24 returns to these individuals suspected of having received large sums of cash to influence declarations and political decision-making within the European institution in favor of foreign powers, including Qatar and Morocco.
Both Doha and Rabat have strongly denied these allegations.
Pier Antonio Panzeri
Le Soir, the Belgian daily at the origin of the revelations on the "Qatargate", now presents Pier Antonio Panzeri, imprisoned for five weeks, as "a human bomb in the service of justice and truth".
The former Italian MEP (2004-2019) has indeed decided to collaborate with Belgian justice, undertaking to reveal everything in a file where he admits his guilt.
By obtaining this repentant status, he will be sentenced to a "limited" prison term.
His lawyer, Laurent Kennes, told AFP that this sentence negotiated with the prosecution would not exceed one year, part of which under electronic bracelet.
"He wants to unpack, he wants to see the end of the tunnel," added the lawyer on the French-language channel RTBF, stressing that his client had "admitted to having been one of the leaders of a criminal organization (... ) in connection with Qatar and Morocco".
Pier Antonio Panzeri is suspected of having received money from Qatar and Morocco to try to influence people working in the European Parliament.
© Marc Dossmann, AFP
In the ranks of the left for fifteen years, Pier Antonio Panzeri would have, according to the Belgian investigation, used his NGO Fight Impunity, which promotes "the fight against impunity for serious violations of human rights", to build, thanks to the contacts made during his political mandates, a career as a lobbyist for the benefit of Qatar.
Still according to the Belgian survey, Fight Impunity had to approach personalities with a certain aura in the field of social rights in order to improve the image of Qatar.
During his arrest on December 9, the Belgian police
discovered at his Brussels home 600,000 euros in cash, while 17,000 euros were found in his family home in Calusco d'Adda (in northern Italy).
Pier Antonio Panzeri and his family "possess an important heritage made up of common current accounts and real estate which can only be justified with the rich prerogative collected in ten years of European parliamentary mandate", indicated the Italian daily Corriere della Serra, December 22.
Eva Kaili
Indicted on December 11 for "belonging to a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption" within the European Parliament for the benefit of Qatar, Eva Kaili was arrested in flagrante delicto, and consequently could not invoke parliamentary immunity. .
During his arrest on December 9, bags filled with banknotes worth 150,000 euros were discovered in his apartment in Brussels.
She is still in detention in Belgium.
File photo of European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, November 22, 2022. Handout via Reuters, European Union 2022
Born in 1978, Eva Kaili is a former television presenter who, at 29, became the youngest member of the Greek Parliament, under the label of the Socialist Party (Pasok-Kinal).
A party from which she had become, over the years, a controversial figure because of her acquaintances with the right, and from which she is now "dismissed".
In 2014, she was elected to the European Parliament.
She retains her seat in 2019 and becomes, in January 2022, Vice-President of the legislative body of the European Union.
At the end of November, a few days after the start of the 2022 World Cup organized by Qatar, criticized from all sides because of suspicions of corruption and the violated rights of foreign workers, Eva Kaili spoke at the podium of the European Parliament to defend the gas emirate.
She had notably called him a "leader in labor law" while ironizing about the suspicions of corruption surrounding the awarding of the competition.
➡️Eva Kaïli, on November 21, defended Qatar against criticism over its labor rights record.
She is now being arrested by police in connection with a corruption probe involving Qatarhttps://t.co/3FdcybelkG pic.twitter.com/b8aXSZNTa4
– LN24 (@LesNews24) December 11, 2022
She was very quickly removed from her position as vice-president of the European institution, while she rejects the accusations against her and affirmed, through her defense team, that she was innocent.
His father, caught carrying a large sum of cash in a suitcase, was interrogated and then released.
Francesco Giorgi
Presented by the Belgian media as "a major suspect in the vast anti-corruption operation of the federal prosecutor's office", Francesco Giorgi, parliamentary assistant to MEP Andrea Cozzolino and specialist in human rights issues, is the companion of socialist MEP Eva Kaili.
This undated photo shows European Parliament Vice-President Eva Kaili and her partner Francesco Giorgi, both involved in a corruption investigation involving the World Cup in Qatar, in a northern suburb of Athens.
© AFP-STR
The latter "did not know of the existence" of the bags filled with banknotes which were discovered in her apartment in Brussels, according to her Greek lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, who pointed the finger at Francesco Giorgi, accused of having "betrayed the trust of his companion.
In Greece, a joint bank account of the couple was seized by justice, as well as a plot of 7,000 m2 on the island of Paros purchased thanks to this account.
Detained for five weeks, Francesco Giorgi is one of the leaders of the NGO Fight Impunity, whose president is none other than Pier Antonio Panzeri.
On December 22, the Reuters agency learned from two people familiar with the matter that Francesco Giorgi admitted to having accepted bribes from Doha in order to influence the decisions of the European Parliament with regard to Qatar.
Also according to Reuters, the two MEPs Marc Tarabella and Andrea Cozzolino, who risk losing their immunity at the request of Belgian justice, have been the targets of accusations made by Francesco Giorgi.
Niccolo Figa-Talamanca
Fourth indicted, the Italian national Niccolo Figa-Talamanca was also arrested on December 9 and placed in detention, then was granted, on December 14, a release under electronic bracelet.
But this measure was finally suspended, the federal prosecutor's office having appealed.
On December 27, the indictment chamber decided to "replace the modality of the electronic bracelet (...) by a simple extension of preventive detention".
In Brussels, the NGO of which he is the head, No Peace Without Justice, created by the former European commissioner (1995-1999) and figure of the Italian liberal left Emma Bonino, shares its offices with the NGO of Pier Antonio Panzeri , Fight Impunity.
Marc Tarabella
The home of Belgian socialist MEP Marc Tarabella, 59, was searched on December 10 as part of the investigation which gave rise to 20 searches between December 9 and 12 in Belgium, without any cash not be discovered there.
His computer and phone were seized.
On December 13, the Belgian Socialist Party decides to suspend Marc Tarabella from his membership pending the investigation.
“I have nothing to reproach myself for,” he declared the same day, after being heard by the Vigilance Commission of the Belgian PS.
"And if justice calls me, I will be at his disposal," he adds.
On January 2, the European Parliament announced that it had launched an emergency procedure, at the request of the Belgian judicial authorities, to lift his immunity.
MEP Marc Tarabella leaving the headquarters of the Socialist Party after a vigilance commission following suspicions linked to the Qatar corruption case in Brussels, December 13, 2022. © Valeria Mongelli, AFP
According to the Belgian daily L'Écho, Pier Antonio Panzeri told investigators that he had given more than 120,000 euros in cash to Marc Tarabella, in several installments, for his help in cases related to Qatar.
Tuesday January 17, Maxim Töller, lawyer for the Belgian elected official, strongly disputed that his client could be one of the "corrupt".
"Whether it was a gift or money, Mr. Tarabella received nothing," the lawyer told AFP, saying that Pier Antonio Panzeri's statements to investigators were false.
The socialist elected, however, admits having made, in February 2020, a trip paid for by Qatar, without declaring it to Parliament as he had to.
"He was invited (...) for a congress. It was the organization that paid," said his lawyer Maxim Töller on the Belgian channel RTL.
"He will regularize things (...). There is nothing illegal in having a trip paid for by an organization", he insisted, specifying that the elected official "went to see the construction of the stages and has
asked to meet workers".
In November, Marc Tarabella had underlined in the European hemicycle "the positive evolution" of human rights in Qatar.
Andrea Cozzolino
As for Marc Tarabella, the European Parliament should decide in mid-February on the waiver of immunity of Andrea Cozzolino, Italian MEP (Democratic Party).
The Neapolitan, born in 1962, had for parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi, the companion of the Greek socialist MEP Eva Kaili, who would have made accusations against him in the context of the affair.
Described by the Belgian press as "very close to Pier Antonio Panzeri", from whom he took over as chairman of the delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries in the European Parliament, Andrea Cozzolino indicates that he wants to be heard by the legal proceedings, behind closed doors, "where he will reaffirm his total innocence and answer all questions".
On December 12, the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group in the European Parliament decided to suspend him from his responsibility as coordinator.
On December 16, the Italian Democratic Party suspended him in turn, "as a preventive measure", from the register of its members "until the closure of the ongoing investigations into the 'Qatargate' scandal", so as to "protect the 'party image'.
"The request for waiver of immunity addressed to the European Parliament by Belgium consists of a few lines and constitutes only a hypothetical investigation, which moreover does not even seem to concern our client since nothing and no one directly implicates him. in acts of corruption", reacted his lawyers in a statement sent to the press.
Luca Visentini
Released without charge but under judicial supervision on December 11, after two days in police custody, Luca Visentini, head of the International Trade Union Confederation, admitted on December 20 that he had received from Fight Impunity, the NGO chaired by Pier-Antonio Panzeri , a cash donation of approximately 50,000 euros.
But he assured that this donation was not linked to any attempt at corruption or influence peddling for the benefit of Qatar.
About this "cash donation", he indicates that he accepted it "because of the quality of the donor and its non-profit nature".
"I was not asked for anything and I did not ask for anything in exchange for the money and no conditions were set for this donation", he assures.
"If I had been corrupt or if I was a corrupter, my political positions would have been very favorable to Qatar, but the previous days
,
I had declared that the reforms made in this country were totally insufficient", confided to the Corriere della Serra the 53-year-old trade unionist after his release.
"Suspended" from his duties by the union's governing body, he is required to inform the authorities if he were to leave the EU.
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