The European Parliament on Thursday withdrew the immunity of MEPs Marc Tarabella and Andrea Cozzolino, suspected of being involved in the bribery plot in exchange for political influence in the European Parliament allegedly linked to Qatar and Morocco.
By overwhelming majorities in both cases, Parliament lifted this privilege to both Belgian and Italian deputies, suspended for the moment from the Social Democratic group, which will allow Belgian justice to continue with the judicial process.
The chambers of the European Parliament showed Tarabella himself, present at the session this Thursday, voting in favor of lifting his own immunity. The Belgian authorities had asked the European Parliament to withdraw the privilege of immunity from both deputies on January 2, so the institution has taken exactly one month to complete a process that in other cases, such as that of the JxCat deputy and former president of the Generalitat of Catalonia Carles Puigdemont, was delayed for months.
The other MEP allegedly involved in Qatargate, the already former vice president of the institution and Greek Social Democrat Eva Kaili, could not invoke this immunity when she was caught in flagrante delicto, and has been charged since the revelations and arrests.
On the other hand, the former Italian Social Democrat MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, also detained, considered the ringleader of the alleged corruption plot, has agreed to collaborate in the Belgian judicial investigation as “repentant” in exchange for reducing his sentence.
In addition to Panzeri and Kaili, the Belgian police arrested the sentimental couple of the Greek politician and parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi and the lobbyist and secretary general of the NGO No Peace Without Justice (Without peace there is no justice), Niccolo Figa-Talamanca, in an operation in which the agents seized a total of more than 1.5 million euros, telephones and computer equipment.
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