Eva Kaili, the former vice-president of the European Parliament, made a partial admission, according to which she ordered her father to hide most of the cash found in his home during subsequent house searches, the French-language Belgian daily La Libre Belgique reported on Tuesday.
On the website of the daily newspaper, it was announced that the detained Greek socialist MEP made a partial confession during his police interrogation on Tuesday about the assignment to his father, who was produced when he left a Brussels hotel with a suitcase full of money. Eva Kaili and three of her companions were arrested on December 9 as part of an investigation launched by the Belgian authorities on charges of corruption.
According to the Belgian police, nearly 1.5 million euros were seized during house searches in the Brussels region in the corruption case.
Kaili's detained partner, the Italian Francesco Giorgi, worked as an assistant to a Belgian socialist MEP, Maria Arena. Giorgi admitted in his testimony last week that he was a member of a lobbying organization that was used by both Morocco and Qatar to interfere in the decisions of the European Parliament.
The defendants also include Nicolo Figa-Talamanca, the director of the NGO No Peace Without Justice, and a former Italian socialist MEP, Pier Antonio Panzeri, who is currently the president of the Brussels-based NGO Fight Impunity.
Detained in the women's section of the Haren prison in Belgium, the former vice-president of the European Parliament and his companions must appear before the court on Thursday, December 22. They will decide at their hearing on Thursday whether they will remain in custody until the start of the trial. The charge against them: participation in a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption. On Thursday, the European Public Prosecutor's Office requested the suspension of the former EP vice-president's immunity.
Source: MTI
Photo: MTI/EPA/Dzalal Morsid
