MEP Kaili faces jail if she breaks media gag order, lawyer says
Politician Eva Kaili, who is being investigated over corruption allegations dubbed Qatargate, could face legal repercussions if she speaks to the media about the scandal, Brussels-based news site POLITICO has reported.
Kaili, who is an active MEP and former vice president of the European Parliament, could be “threatened with being put back in prison if she makes any comment, direct or indirect, about her case to the media,” one of her lawyers said in an email to a European Parliament committee.
The Qatargate scandal broke out when authorities discovered bags of cash in the homes and offices of several European Parliament members and aides in December 2022, among which was Kaili and her partner and former parliamentary assistant Francesco Giorgi.
Kaili, who maintains her innocence, was arrested in flagrante delicto by Belgian authorities over her alleged involvement in the scandal, and is being accused of money laundering, corruption, and colluding with Qatar, Morocco and Mauritania for payoffs, so that these countries could get preferential treatment in the European Parliament.
In total, four individuals have been implicated in the scandal, and law enforcement authorities have confiscated €1.5 million in cash in Belgium, Italy and Greece.
On Tuesday, the European Parliament plenary in Strasbourg approved the lifting of immunity for Kaili following a request by the European Prosecutor over a case related to management of allowances to parliamentary assistants.
Voting took place by raised hands, per procedure.
The case had been initiated in December 2022 by the European Prosecutor, who was investigating possible fraud against the European Union’s budget over allowances for MEPs and their assistants.
Lifting Kaili’s immunity is not related to Qatargate.
MEPs also approved the lifting of the immunity of Giorgos Kyrtsos in relation to a criminal prosecution for non-payment of a certain sum owed to the Greek state in his capacity as deputy managing director and legal representative of the Free Sunday newspaper. [Kathimerini/AMNA]
