Belgian detectives tasked with assessing the work of the Italian authorities in the Qatargate investigation will be in Milan next week.
In recent weeks, Italy’s financial police, the Guardia di Finanza, have carried out seizures and searches of people linked to Italian suspects in the Qatargate scandal, which is affecting the European Parliament.
According to the Italian newspaper La Repubblica, copies of electronic devices, including computers and phones, seized by the Italian financial police about a month ago are now at the disposal of Milan deputy prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale.
It was he who carried out the order of the Belgian investigator Michael Claise, head of the investigation into the allegations of corruption within the European Parliament by envoys from Qatar and Morocco. The Guardia di Finanza had also been asked to check seven accounts belonging to some of the people involved in the investigation.
On December 11, the Guardia di Finanza had turned up at the home of Pierre Antonio Panzeri the former MEP arrested in the Belgian prosecutor’s investigation into Qatargate, believed to be the mastermind of the group working in the European Parliament on behalf of the Moroccans secret services and the minister of labor of Qatar.
Panzeri’s Wife And Accountant And Giorgi’s Parents Targeted by Italians Over Qatargate
Italy’s financial police had also visited the home of Panzeri’s wife, Maria Dolores Colleoni, in Calusco D’Adda, as well as that of his former partner Francesco Giorgi’s parents in Abbiategrasso.
Georgi, partner of the former vice-president of the European Parliament, Evas Kaili, is considered by the investigators to be Panzeri’s right-hand man during his time of influence in the European Parliament, while until recently he was also an assistant to MEP Andrea Coccolino.
In addition, Fiamme Gialle (Italy’s economic police department) had also seized items from the office of Monica Bellini, Panzeri’s accountant. During the operations, sums of money, amounting to approximately 17,000 euros, were seized from the house of Panzeri’s wife, and 20,000 euros from the house of Giorgi’s family.
Meanwhile, the Court of Cassation of Bergamo rejected the appeal of the lawyers of Antonio Panzeri, his wife Maria Dolores Colleoni and his daughter, Sivlia, for the seizure of accounts containing about 240,000 euros.
This article is originally published on iefimerida.gr
