"Next week, she will be in the European Parliament to carry out her duties," Kaili's Greek lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, told Greek television channel Skaï on Friday. The day before, the Belgian judiciary allowed the 44-year-old former journalist, emblematic figure of the "Qatargate" scandal, to remove her electronic bracelet and released her from house arrest pending her trial for corruption.
The MEP has yet to ask the Parliament to determine whether her surveillance, arrest and imprisonment violated her rights as an MEP, Dimitrakopoulos added. Former rising star of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili was stripped of her position as Vice-President and expelled from her group in the Socialists and Democrats parliament.
Two other suspects removed their bracelets
Arrested in December in the Belgian capital during a wave of searches, Eva Kaili was released from prison in mid-April, but placed under house arrest under electronic bracelet. Two other suspects in this case of alleged corruption in the European Parliament have already benefited this month from a lifting of this measure of surveillance at home.
They are Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, who, like Eva Kaili, maintains his innocence, and Francesco Giorgi, companion of the Greek MEP and former parliamentary assistant to Pier Antonio Panzeri. The latter, former Italian MEP (2004-2019), who is the central personality of the case, remains placed under electronic bracelet, one of the modalities of preventive detention in Belgium.
In this case of alleged corruption for the benefit of Qatar and Morocco, at least six suspects have been charged, including suspicions of participation in a criminal organization and money laundering.
"She thinks she will be acquitted"
The scandal erupted in December when Belgian investigators found about €1.5 million in small denominations in suitcases or bags during searches in Brussels - including the homes of Eva Kaili and Pier Antonio Panzeri. The investigating judge in charge of the investigation, Michel Claise, suspects cash payments made in exchange for decisions or political positions favorable to Qatar and Morocco in the European Parliament, which Doha and Rabat have strongly denied.
Michalis Dimitrakopoulos assured Friday that Pier Antonio Panzeri was the "mastermind" and that Kaili's fingerprints had not been found on the money seized by the police. "She thinks she will be acquitted ... if the case goes to trial," he added.
