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It is a first attempt by the European Parliament to free itself from the swamp of allegations of bribery: MEPs voted overwhelmingly on Tuesday to remove Eva Kaili from the office of Vice President.
The vote was surprisingly clear, with 625 out of 628 votes cast - even given that nothing less than Parliament's reputation is at stake.
The presumption of innocence, which Parliament President Roberta Metsola tried to uphold pro forma on Monday, is largely a thing of the past.
MPs seem convinced that Kaili - who faces charges of money laundering, corruption and membership of a criminal organization - is guilty, despite the 44-year-old's lawyer pleading her innocence on Greek television.
However, the investigations are not only aimed at the Greek social democrat.
According to the Belgian public prosecutor's office, 19 private apartments and an office in the European Parliament have now been searched.
In addition, the data processing resources of ten parliamentary staff were "frozen" to ensure that no data important to the investigation disappeared.
In addition to Kaili, five other people were arrested, three of whom are being held in custody with the former parliamentary vice-president.
Morocco is also said to be involved in the scandal
The Belgian authorities have not yet officially released their names.
According to consistent media reports and information from insiders from parliament, however, it is Kaili's partner Francesco Giorgi, the Italian politician Pier Antonio Panzeri and another man whose name has not yet been made public.
Antonio Panzeri
, former MEP from Italy,
should play a central role in the scandal according to the findings of the investigators.
In the 67-year-old's apartment, 600,000 euros in cash were found, the largest sum discovered during the searches to date.
Remarkable: In internal investigation documents available to SPIEGEL, Panzeri is accused of having influenced MEPs not only in favor of Qatar, but also in favor of Morocco.
Two Panzeris family members are said to have helped transport "gifts" that had been given to them by the Moroccan ambassador to an eastern EU country.
No reasons are given for this.
Panzeri already had ties to Morocco when he was an MEP from 2004 to 2019: he chaired both the subcommittee on human rights and the delegation for relations with the North African Maghreb countries.
Panzeri has also been linked to disreputable financial conduct.
In May 2017, the European Court of Justice ruled that the Italian had to pay back to the European Parliament 83,764.34 euros that he had illegally received.
Francesco Giorgi
is another prime suspect in the affair.
He is a political advisor in the EU Parliament and was or is also employed by the Brussels human rights organization »Fight Impunity«, of which Panzeri is President.
Giorgi appeared on the organization's website as an employee in June.
The employee list has now been deleted.
Giorgi was arrested last Friday morning, according to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir, his questioning and the confiscation of his phone were decisive for further investigations.
Marc Tarabella
is an MEP and mayor of the Walloon municipality of Anthisnes.
The house of the Belgian Social Democrat was searched on Saturday evening – in accordance with legal regulations, in the presence of the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, who was specially flown in from her home country of Malta.
The day before, the police had sealed the parliamentary office of an employee of Tarabella, who is said to have previously worked for Panzeri.
Tarabella is Vice-Chair of the Parliamentary Delegation for relations with the Arabian Peninsula.
After the allegations became known, he voluntarily suspended his membership of the Social Democratic Group.
In addition, two other Italians and one Italian woman got caught up in the scandal.
Luca Visentini
, elected President of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) at the end of November, was arrested and conditionally released.
Social Democrat
Marie Arena
has resigned as Chair of the Subcommittee on Human Rights.
Your party colleague
Pietro Bartolo
has given up his position as a member of the committee working on visa facilitation for Qatar.