Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella was charged in particular with “corruption”, then placed in pre-trial detention on Saturday in the investigation into suspicions of interference by Qatar and Morocco in the decisions of the European Parliament, announced the federal prosecutor’s office. The 59-year-old elected socialist was imprisoned after his indictment for “corruption”, “money laundering” and “participation in a criminal organization”, specified AFP Eric van der Sijpt, spokesperson for the federal prosecution. .
The Belgian MEP, whose parliamentary immunity was lifted last week, “was arrested on Friday morning at his home in Anthisnes. After a first night in detention, he was heard by the investigating judge on Saturday morning.
”Qatargate”: after a night in a cell, Marc Tarabella must be presented this Saturday to the examining magistrate
“The hearing itself went well. Marc Tarabella answered all the investigators’ questions frankly and in a serene atmosphere,” said the lawyer for the MEP charged on Saturday following his hearing before the investigating judge in charge of the investigation into alleged acts of corruption in connection with a foreign state. “No new element has been presented to corroborate the accusations of money transmission, nothing new has moreover been presented. The only incriminating element is Mr. Panzeri’s remarks against my client”, defends the lawyer.
“It is enough to defame a person, recognized as the head of a criminal organization, to cause such a tsunami and unfairly smear Mr. Tarabella”, laments the lawyer, in a reaction to Belga. “He continues to claim his innocence, he says he never received money or gifts in exchange for favors, and recalls having nothing to reproach himself for. It is the word of a criminal, Panzeri, against the word of ‘a man who has been honest all his life.
“My client will continue to fight for his innocence to be recognized”, assures the advice of the Socialist MEP who also attacks the status of repentant granted to Pier Antonio Panzeri: “the interested and handsomely rewarded word of a single no one should ever be enough to put someone in jail and potentially destroy their life.”
Three other people, including Greek MEP Eva Kaili, are already imprisoned in this scandal which broke out on December 9 and led to a wave of arrests in Brussels. That day, Belgian investigators got their hands on around 1.5 million euros in cash in bags or suitcases discovered in particular at the Brussels homes of Ms. Kaili and Pier Antonio Panzeri. The latter, a former Italian MEP, a key suspect in the case, admitted in January having orchestrated this fraud. He reached an agreement with the prosecution providing for a prison sentence limited to one year in exchange for precise declarations on the fraud and the people involved.
According to the Belgian press, Mr. Panzeri implicated Mr. Tarabella before the investigators in December shortly after his arrest. He claimed to have paid him “between 120,000 and 140,000 euros” in several installments for his help in matters related to Qatar.
Marc Tarabella denied any wrongdoing, and demanded to be heard toexplain. There Belgian justice had to wait for the end of the procedure for lifting immunity in Parliament, on February 2, to consider any coercive measure.
In the same investigation, another Socialist MEP, the Italian Andrea Cozzolino, also deprived of his immunity on February 2, was arrested on Friday in Italy under an international arrest warrant, Mr. van der Sijpt confirmed on Saturday. at AFP.
Belgian justice is now awaiting his extradition.