Published on: 18.12.2022 – 23:19
On December 9th in Brussels, Belgian criminal police arrested Francesco Giorgi, assistant to the European Parliament and companion of one of the vice-presidents, Greek MEP Eva Kaïli, who was due to be arrested at the end of the day. The emirate denies any involvement or threat.
With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benacet
Ten days ago it was the start of a corruption case that now also affects Morocco but is still pending Qatargate. In total, the police stole more than 1.5 million euros in cash, according to leaks in the investigation file, the money should mainly come from Qatar. Which the emirate denies and threatens.
A statement signed by a diplomat from Qatar’s representation in Brussels said that relations related to security or gas supplies will suffer as a result of the European Parliament’s actions. In this case, Qatar classifies as “discriminatory” the measures called for in the resolution adopted by MEPs on Thursday, namely to ban representatives of Qatari interests from entering the parliament. Parliament has also decided to suspend all legislative work related to the emirate.
Deferred Votes
All of this will indefinitely postpone consideration of visa liberalization on the one hand, and an agreement giving Qatar Airways access to European airspace on the other. This agreement has already been widely criticized by European airlines.
The Qatari statement also attacked Belgium, saying it was very disappointed with its stance because Belgium had “made no effort to clarify the facts with our government”. The independence of the judiciary appears to be an unfamiliar concept to the author of the press release, who also denounced the leak of the file and the inaccurate information, which “concerns Qatar exclusively”.
►Also read: “Qatargate”: a mainly Italian network run by Qatari and Moroccan intelligence agencies