An audio recording from May 2023 made public on Monday (5 February) suggests that the so-called Qatargate court case, centered on allegations that Qatar and Morocco bought influence bribing MEPs, risks being derailed due to procedural defects.
An important investigator involved in the Qatargate affair has accused a key figure in the process of lying and judges being “pulled by strings”, according to a leaked recording.
The Qatargate scandal erupted in December 2022 when Belgian police conducting raids arrested several suspects, including MEP Eva Kaili, and seized €1.5 million in cash.
Both Qatar and Morocco have denied any involvement in any wrongdoing in the case.
Kaili, who was stripped of her position as one of the parliament’s vice presidents but who continues to sit as an MEP following her release from detention, says she is innocent.
The 16 police raids in December 2022 saw Kaili and her Italian partner Francesco Giorgi, who was a parliamentary assistant, arrested as well as a former Italian MEP, Pier Antonio Panzeri, and several other suspects.
They are among seven people the prosecutor’s office says have been charged, including two other MEPs — an Italian, Andrea Cozzolino, and a Belgian, Marc Tarabella — who were also detained.
Kaili spent four months in custody, while Tarabella spent two months detained.
Panzeri cut a deal in January in 2003 in which he confessed to being behind the bribery scheme and promised to divulge the names of all the participants in return for a reduced sentence.
The tape
An important investigator involved in the Qatargate affair has accused Panzeri of lying and the judges being “pulled by strings”, according to a recording made without his knowledge by Giorgi. An audio extract from this recording was revealed Monday by La Libre and Le Soir.
Giorgi secretly recorded a conversation with Belgian police officer Ceferino Álvarez Rodríguez during his visit to Giorgi’s apartment in early May 2023, Euronews has revealed.
This police officer is a senior inspector of the Central Office for the Suppression of Corruption (OCRC) of the Federal Judicial Police (PJF).
In the recording, the investigator tells Giorgi that Panzeri was “lying”.
“We don’t believe anything he says,” the police officer says, according to the recording broadcast by La Libre and Le Soir. “We know very well that he is deceiving us, we know it. But everything will explode. When it explodes, it will explode,” he says.
The police officer also expressed his dissatisfaction with the appointed judges.
“I don’t have confidence in justice because justice is pulled by strings, by politicians,” he reportedly said.
The federal prosecutor’s office has confirmed that it is aware of this audio extract and has said that a procedure is underway before the indictment chamber in order to examine “the legality of a certain number of investigative actions”.
The Belgian press comments that the tape further complicates the steps taken to put the suspects on trial.
Giorgi and his lawyer Pierre Monville, for their part, reportedly announced their intention to use the tape as part of the court proceedings before the indictment chamber.
The latter will be responsible for verifying from 24 May whether the investigation into “Qatargate” was carried out in accordance with the rules of procedure.
(Edited by Georgi Gotev)
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Source: euractiv.com
