The amount in cash seized in the order of hundreds of thousands of euros in the home of the vice president of the Eurochamber
Eva Kaili
and in the bags her father was carrying when he was stopped by the authorities.
The money has not yet been counted but, according to the Belgian newspaper L'Echo, the first estimates speak of over 750 thousand euros in denominations of 20 and 50 euros: six hundred thousand euros were in the suitcase brought by Kaili's father and the rest in the home of the Greek MEP.
The Greek anti-money laundering authority, meanwhile, has frozen the assets of the vice-president of the Eurochamber.
Athens has frozen all of Eva Kaili's assets: the Greek government has announced this.
The provision of the Greek anti-money laundering authority concerns "bank accounts, safes, companies and any other financial asset", reports Le Soir quoting the president of the body Haralambos Vourliotis.
The asset freeze, according to the same source, also affects Kaili's close family members, such as her parents.
Also in the Authority's sights is a recently established real estate company in the chic Athens district of Kolonaki, which was allegedly created by the 44-year-old MEP and her Italian partner, adds the Belgian newspaper.
Some searches were carried out between yesterday evening and today in homes in
Milan
and in the province
attributable to Antonio Panzeri and his family
by the Guardia di Finanza in execution of a European investigation order in the Brussels investigation into criminal conspiracy, corruption and money laundering to favor Qatar and Morocco, which led to the arrest, among others, of the former MEP, his daughter, his wife and the vice president of the European Parliament Eva Kaili.
From what is known, computer media, documents and an insignificant sum of cash in euros were seized.
For some, the scandal engulfing the European Parliament over bribes from Qatar would be an 'Italian job', says a French spokesman of a parliamentary group to the Eurochamber 'behind the scenes'.
And since the EPP, the Italian socialists would be "toxic" figures at the moment, observe sources inside the European People's Party.
All elements that could already emerge today, at the Plenary meeting in Strasbourg and which will probably see President Roberta Metsola intervene on the dossier in her opening speech.
"It is a truly incredible case, which now needs to be clarified without ifs and buts, with all the severity of the law. Because it also and especially concerns Europe's credibility" and "there will have to be consequences in various areas", but "now it is a question of clarifying completely".
"We haven't seen anything like this for a long time," said German foreign minister
Annalena Baerbock
as she arrived at the EU foreign ministers council in Brussels.
For the high representative of EU foreign policy
Josep Borrell
"the news is very worrying, they are very serious allegations, but there is an investigation underway and I am sticking to what the magistrates declared".
"We are checking every detail on the transparency register - said the president of the European Commission,
Ursula von der Leyen
, answering a question about the Commission's possible involvement in the Qatargate investigation -, we have very clear rules for all the commissioners, we are checking in the light of what happened in the European Parliament. As long as there is no new information we are at the status quo, but if something new should emerge we will have to react".
"I've never received gifts from Qatar. I would have reported him":
S&D MEP Marc Tarabella defends himself like this
, in an interview with the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, by the suspicions of being involved in the investigation into the bribes to the Eurochamber from the Gulf country.
His home was searched in the presence of the president of the EU Parliament Roberta Metsola.
And the office of one of his assistants, the Italian GM, is among those sealed off in the Brussels office of the Eurochamber.
GM - Tarabella confirms - also worked with two other Italian MEPs, Pietro Bartolo and Lara Comi, and "worked for Mr. Panzeri for many years. I can easily imagine that this is why the courts are interested in him. However , I don't know whether as a witness or in another capacity", explained Tarabella who admits that she knows the former Italian MEP now under arrest quite well.
"
He was elected to the European Parliament from 2004 to 2019, we have been colleagues for a long time and, if the facts are true, it would be a great disappointment.
He likes football: we watched the matches together and discussed the results of the weekend, like many other colleagues", Tarabella said. The MEP then dwells on his attitude to the Eurochamber on Qatar, judged by some of his colleagues too soft." The World Cup was awarded to Qatar in December 2010. I was one of the first to raise the objection, especially given the unenviable fate of migrant workers.
Then things started to evolve positively in Qatar, which is, for example, the only country in the area to have abolished the Kafala system.
Everything is far from perfect,
"For some time Eva Kaili had distanced herself from the ideology and politics of her own party, Pasok, to identify with the one in government of Nea Dimokratia and the European People's Party": said Andreas
Spyropoulos
, secretary of the Pasok Central Political Committee, during an interview with the Mega broadcaster.
Already yesterday the leader of the Greek socialist party, Nikos Androulakis, had defined the MEP "a Trojan horse within Pasok who operated on behalf of Nea Dimokratia".
Spyropoulos recalled how since Androulakis denounced, last July, that she had suffered an attempted hacking of her mobile phone, Kaili "was the first among politicians in Greece to have adopted the line imposed by the government in her speeches" trying to minimize the problem.
Later, according to Spyropoulos, the MEP repeatedly tried to prevent the wiretapping case from being raised in the European Parliament.
"
commenting on Kaili's arrest in flagrante delicto.
Regarding the criticisms received by Pasok for this distancing from the MEP, judged late, Spyropoulos defended his party claiming that "Kaili was a 'shadow rapporteur' of the PEGA commission of inquiry, set up by the European Parliament to investigate the scandal wiretaps, and it was felt that if we had ousted her at that time, it would in fact have been direct interference by Androulakis in the work of the European Parliament".
commenting on Kaili's arrest in flagrante delicto.
Regarding the criticisms received by Pasok for this distancing from the MEP, judged late, Spyropoulos defended his party claiming that "Kaili was a 'shadow rapporteur' of the PEGA commission of inquiry, set up by the European Parliament to investigate the scandal wiretaps, and it was felt that if we had ousted her at that time, it would in fact have been direct interference by Androulakis in the work of the European Parliament".