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”, Eric van der Sijpt, spokesman for the federal prosecutor’s office, told AFP. . Three other people, including Greek MEP Eva Kaili, are already imprisoned in this case, 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 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.
Waiver of immunity
According to the Belgian press, Panzeri implicated 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 asked to be heard to explain himself.
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, Van der Sijpt confirmed on Saturday. AFP. Belgian justice is now awaiting his extradition.