In connection with the alleged corruption scandal involving EU Parliament Vice Eva Kaili, investigators also searched rooms in the EU Parliament in Brussels on Monday. This was announced by the Belgian public prosecutor. Data was confiscated from the computers of ten parliamentary employees. The computers have been “frozen” since Friday to prevent the data required for the investigation from disappearing. There were also raids on Sunday in Italy, it said.
According to the public prosecutor’s office, there have been 20 searches since the investigation began – 19 in offices and living quarters and one in the European Parliament itself. According to this, 600,000 euros were found in a suspect’s residence, several hundred thousand euros in a suitcase in a Brussels hotel and 150,000 euros in the flat of an MEP. The name was not mentioned.
Greek social democrat Kaili is one of six suspects arrested by Belgian authorities since Friday in the corruption scandal. Four of them were taken into custody on Sunday – including, according to information from the German Press Agency and other media, 44-year-old Kaili herself, her boyfriend and former MEP Antonio Panzeri. According to the public prosecutor’s office, they are to appear before a court chamber on Wednesday, which is to decide whether the detention is to be maintained and how to proceed.
The four suspects are accused of involvement in a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption. It is said that the Gulf Emirate of Qatar, which is currently hosting the soccer World Cup, has tried to influence political decisions in the European Parliament with extensive monetary and material gifts. The desert state rejected the allegations.
