2023-11-06 17:55:12
New requests to lift parliamentary immunity are “in the pipeline”. This is the information circulating, both in legal circles and in the corridors of the European Parliament. “It’s all about seeing who will be in the batch and when this request will be successful.”
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At this stage, two MEPs have already lost their protection: the Belgian Marc Tarabella and the Italian Andrea Cozzolino. And the former vice-president of the European Parliament Eva Kaili also lost it, through flagrante delicto.
Who else ? We think of the Italian Alessandra Moretti and the Belgian Marie Arena, because their names appeared in the arrest warrant, issued on February 10, 2023, against Cozzolino. At that time they were presented as a quartet under the orders of Panzeri… It is also possible that Lara Comi (MEP from Forza Italia) will be the subject of a request for lifting of immunity. Panzeri had implicated her during his repentant confession.
Since the beginning of the investigation, the name of Marie Arena has been mentioned. First of all, she was good friends with Pier Antonio Panzeri, the alleged mastermind of this corruption scandal. She was the one who ran to his aid last December when it was necessary to find him a lawyer because he had just been arrested. And then, there were these very numerous telephone exchanges: no less than 389 contacts between them, over 9 months, from mid-December 2021 to mid-September 2022. The former Italian MEP also schooled her for succeed him in the Human Rights subcommittee of the European Parliament, where the famous working conditions in Qatar will be discussed. It was under the presidency of Marie Arena that the Qatari Minister of Labor was invited to this commission, who was thus able to hold an open forum. Marie Arena and Panzeri also made several trips together, notably to Morocco, to the Mamounia, a luxurious hotel in Marrakech. There are also the links established by investigators, between Ugo Lemaire (the son of Marie Arena) and Panzeri. The second wanted to offer places for the World Cup in Qatar to the first.
Read also Scandal in the European Parliament: Panzeri’s wife and daughter face the judge, they will be heard this Monday in Brussels
Justice is becoming more and more interested in Marie Arena. On July 17, the new investigating judge Aurélie Dejaiffe (who succeeded Judge Claise, who withdrew from the case for a possible conflict of interest with Marie Arena precisely, through her son) carried out a search of the home private of Marie Arena, in Schaerbeek as well as in five other places directly or indirectly linked to her or her family. During these 6 searches, investigators also found €280,000 in cash, in the apartment occupied by his son, in the same building as his mother in Schaerbeek.
Despite the immunity that protects Marie Arena, investigators already have a lot of investigative power. A lifting of immunity would allow arrest and summons before a court. To our knowledge, Marie Arena has still not been interviewed by investigators. She maintains her innocence in the press and remains presumed innocent, even if her parliamentary immunity were to be lifted.
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