The corruption scandal rocking Brussels continues to widen: Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino has been arrested in Naples on a European warrant whereas MEP Marc Tarabella has been criminally charged, becoming a member of a bunch of 4 folks awaiting trial.
The investigation centres on an alleged cash-for-favours scheme that concerned “massive sums” of cash and “substantial” items paid to affect EU decision-making, in accordance with Belgian authorities.
At the least €1.5 million in money have been seized throughout dozens of raids.
The international locations suspected to be behind the illicit lobbying are Qatar and Morocco. Each have vigorously contested the claims and denied any wrongdoing.
The arrest of the 2 lawmakers, formally related to the socialist group, was made doable after their very own colleagues lifted their parliamentary immunity earlier this month, paving the way in which for the police intervention.
Cozzolino was stopped by authorities on Friday after leaving a well being clinic in Naples and was knowledgeable he was the topic of a European arrest warrant, Italian media reported.
Cozzolino was then taken to the Poggioreale jail and was later positioned on home arrest as a precautionary measure to stop his flight.
Belgian police had tried to search out the MEP after they went to raid his Brussels residence however he was already in Italy, resulting in the issuance of an arrest warrant.
An extradition listening to is anticipated to happen on Tuesday.
Cozzolino has mentioned he’s “calm” and has belief within the justice system. His lawyer defends his consumer’s innocence and vows to combat the extradition.
Scrutiny over the Italian MEP has been intense ever since his assistant, Francesco Giorgi, was arrested and charged in mid-December.
In his leaked confession, Giorgi immediately accused Cozzolino and Tarabella of accepting cash from Qatar and Morocco, a cost the lawmakers refuted.
First elected in 2019, Cozzolino served because the chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with Maghreb international locations, which covers Morocco, till he was eliminated over the rising suspicions.
Tarabella criminally charged
One other title that has been on the radar of Belgian authorities is Marc Tarabella.
Tarabella was detained by Belgian police on Friday morning whereas he was in Anthisnes, a small French-speaking city wherein he serves as mayor.
As a part of the operation, police searched a number of places of work contained in the Anthisnes city corridor in addition to a financial institution protected situated in Liège.
The next day, a decide charged Tarabella with participation in a prison organisation, corruption and cash laundering, and was despatched to the Saint Gilles jail.
These are the identical fees confronted by Greek MEP Eva Kaili, her home companion Francesco Giorgi, former MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri and NGO director Niccolò Figà-Talamanca.
Kaili, Giorgi and Panzeri stay in jail, whereas Figà-Talamanca has been launched.
Separate pre-trial hearings for Kaili, Panzeri and Tarabella are scheduled to happen on Thursday, the prosecutor’s workplace advised Euronews.
Panzeri, the presumed middleman between the Arab international locations and the hemicycle, has signed a cope with authorities wherein he admits his prison participation in bribery and commits to sharing “revealing” particulars in regards to the cash-for-favour scheme.
In keeping with Belgian media, Panzeri has confessed to handing over €120,000 in money to Tarabella over a number of instalments in relation to the latter’s work on Qatar-related points.
However Tarabella’s lawyer disputes Panzeri’s credibility and insists his consumer has by no means obtained any money or present in change for political affect.
“No new ingredient has been offered to corroborate the accusations of cash transactions, nothing new has been offered. The one incriminating components are the phrases of Mr Panzeri towards my consumer,” Maxim Töller mentioned in a press release seen by Euronews.
“It solely takes the defamation of an individual, recognised as the top of a prison organisation, to impress such a tsunami and unjustly smear Mr Tarabella.”
First elected to the European Parliament in 2004, Tarabella sat on the delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula, often called DARP, which covers Qatar, till he was requested to step down.
Again in November, Tarabella defended Qatar’s labour rights within the context of the FIFA World Cup, utilizing related arguments to these voiced by Eva Kaili in the identical plenary session.
“What’s vital is that, when the lights of the World Cup have gone out, the optimistic evolution continues not solely in Qatar, however it will probably unfold to all of the international locations of the Arabian Peninsula,” Tarabella mentioned, talking in French.
In early December, Tarabella voted in favour of a visa waiver for Qatari and Kuwaiti residents, a legislative file that has since then been placed on maintain.
Regardless of being stripped away from their parliamentary immunity and committee positions, each Tarabella and Cozzolino stay MEPs with a post-tax wage of €7,146 per 30 days.
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