Not just suitcases full of cash scattered around Brussels homes, but also accounts in offshore havens. The risk of further expanding Qatargate does not only exist from the point of view of the MPs involved. The Greek authorities have asked the State of Panama for information about an account held at the local Bladex bank in the name of former Eurochamber Vice President Eva Kaili and her parents. According to the Greek money laundering authority, twenty million euros could have flowed there from Qatar. This could thus open a new branch of the investigation that has gripped the European Parliament, while the Democratic Party gives a resounding yes to the Belgian investigators’ request for the lifting of the immunity of Socialist MPs Marc Tarabella and Andrea Cozzolino.
Athens’ request is awaiting an answer. Certainly, the trail of tax havens like that of the Central American state was among the first hit by prosecutor Michel Claise in the days following the arrests of Eva Kaili, Antonio Panzeri, Francesco Giorgi and Niccolò Figà-Talamanca. All four remain in prison in Brussels awaiting hearings scheduled between January 17 and 27.
The hearing to decide whether or not to extradite Silvia Panzeri to Belgium has been postponed to January 16 by the Brescia Court of Appeal. The judges had accepted a question by the defense highlighting the critical conditions in Belgian prisons and postponed the hearing to review the situation by inviting a report from Brussels.
However, the documents did not arrive. Meanwhile, lawyers Angelo De Riso and Nicola Colli have requested that Antonio Panzeri’s daughter, who is currently under house arrest, be released or, alternatively, just put a signing order on her. The jury’s decision is expected within the next 5 days.
Mid-January will also be crucial for MEPs implications surrounding Qatargate following Belgian investigators’ request to lift Tarabella and Cozzolino’s immunity. President Roberta Metsola will announce the procedure at the beginning of the plenary session in Strasbourg on January 16th. It is up to the Juri Commission (responsible for legal issues) to approve the revocation, which then has to be ratified by the Chamber. The leaders of the European Parliament should start an emergency procedure to close the case at the mini-plenary session scheduled for early February. And the vote should not hold any surprises. “The Democratic Party will vote to lift the immunity,” assured the head of the Dem delegation in the EP, Brando Benifei.
Another strand linked to the investigation, that of relations between the EU and countries linked to the case, primarily Qatar and Morocco, could see news in the next few hours when the High Representative for Foreign Affairs, Josep Borrell, will arrive at the Maghreb country on a two-day mission. Nothing from the EU has leaked into Borrell’s journey, but Qatargate will likely be on the table. Also because relations between the EU and third countries, at least at MEP level, are not going back to the way they used to be.
A report in Belgian newspaper Le Soir details all the meetings investigators trawled behind the scenes of the EP vote on respect for human rights in Qatar. One for all. On October 10, the luxurious Steigenberger Wiltcher’s Hotel in Brussels received Qatari Labor Minister Al Marri and his right-hand man, Boudejellal B., known as “the Algerian”, both on a mission to the Belgian capital. This is where Giorgi and Panzeri appeared. The two went upstairs to suite 412. The meeting lasted an hour and a half. “At 7:21 p.m. Panzeri and Giorgi left the suite and, according to investigators, had one more bag with them than when they entered,” writes Le Soir. (HAND).