Bribes and gifts from Qatar to influence the decisions of European Parliament. Especially to defend the reputation of World Championship out Soccer. It is the center of investigation of the Federal Police of Belgium resulting in a flash with 16 searches in various communities in the region Brussels. Four people have been arrested and are being interrogated: among them the former MEP from the Democratic Party and Article 1 Antonio Panzeri – former secretary of the Chamber of Labor in Milan – and the trade unionists Luke Visentiniformer managing director of Uil in Friuli Venezia Giulia who has been at the top for a few weeks Ituc, the world trade union federation (representing more than 200 million workers). Controversial charges include “criminal organization”, corruption and money laundering. The Vice-President of Parliament is also one of the suspects of corruption Eva Kailialso a Social Democrat: According to the newspaper Le Soir, her house was searched.
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Antonio Panzeri and Luca Visentini, the MEP and the trade unionist: who are the two arrested in the corruption investigation in Belgium?
News of the investigation was awaited by Le Soir newspaper and Knack weekly. The leaders of Socialists & Democrats, to which Panzeri belonged until a few years ago, met urgently in the afternoon. Through the investigation, the investigators were able to capture 600,000 euros in cash. Computer equipment and mobile phones were confiscated and will be analyzed as part of the investigation. This process applies in particular to parliamentary assistants who work in the European Parliament. Among those interviewed was a former MEP”. Five hundred thousand euros Cash kidnapped They were found in Panzeri’s house. According to various confidential sources from ilfattoquotidiano.it, who all agree, the detainees are exclusively Italians: alongside Panzeri and Visentini, they are Italians Francis George, Panzeri’s former parliamentary assistant. The fourth person is die, according to local media Director of an NGO. These are personalities who are very active in human rights associations. The President is Panzeri himself, who has not been a MEP since 2019 fight impunity which promotes the “fight against impunity for serious violations of human rights” and international justice. Among the searched premises is also that of the association.
The investigation, launched in July 2022 by the Belgian authorities and coordinated by the Attorney General, is an investigation that could lead to a unprecedented earthquake in the buildings of the European institutions. A case of corruption and money laundering which, if demonstrated much more ramified links to other political exponents sitting between the benches of the Eurochamber, would risk undermining the credibility of the institutions themselves. Investigators “suspect that a Country on the Gulf attempts to influence the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament by paying large sums of money or offering significant gifts to third parties who hold a significant political and/or strategic position within the European Parliament. The accusation, which the Belgian newspapers specify, does not mention this Qatarbut several well-informed sources have reported that it was the very one who paid the bribes doha. Your goal during the games of World Championshipwould have consisted precisely in defending the legitimacy of the competition against the allegations violation of human rights and gods workers rightsunderscoring the supposed progress of the Qatari monarchy.
Further information about the architecture of the organization could result from the analyzes of the computer equipment and gods phones seized by investigators during raids that mainly affected parliamentary assistants linked to the group socialists and democrats and in one case al European People’s Party.