Greek Vice-President of the European Parliament Eva Kaili and three other people were charged and imprisoned on Sunday in Belgium in an investigation into suspicions of corruption in connection with Qatar within this institution of the EU, indicated to the AFP a judicial source.
The federal prosecutor’s office did not provide any names when announcing the provisional detention of four of the six people arrested in the past 48 hours.
Four people were imprisoned after their indictment by a Brussels investigating judge for “belonging to a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption”, said the federal prosecutor’s office in a press release. Two other people were released by the judge.
According to a judicial source close to the case, speaking on condition of anonymity, Eva Kaili is one of these four people imprisoned.
She could not benefit from her parliamentary immunity because the offense of which she is accused was found “in flagrante delicto” on Friday, explained the same source.
This source confirmed press reports that Ms Kaili was in possession of “bags of tickets” on Friday evening when Belgian police arrested her.
The federal prosecutor’s office also announced that a search had taken place on Saturday evening at the home of a second MEP. Ms. Kaili’s Brussels home was searched on Friday evening.
In this case “is suspected the payment of large sums of money or the offer of significant gifts to third parties having a political and/or strategic position allowing, within the European Parliament, to influence the decisions” of this institution , underlines the statement of the parquet floor.
Saturday evening the President of the European Parliament, the Maltese Roberta Metsola, had decided on a first sanction against Eva Kaili. The Greek Vice-President had been stripped of all the tasks delegated by Ms. Metsola, including that of representing her in the Middle East region.
Left-wing MEPs, including the ecologist Philippe Lamberts on behalf of the Greens group in the European Parliament, demanded the resignation of Ms. Kaili, excluded from the Greek Socialist Party (Pasok-Kinal) on Friday evening.
Agence