Our coverage on the Qatargate has always been pro transparency and rule of law. We covered the crisis extensively and sided with the momentary revelations of what Judge Michel Claise uttered. But could our judge be be wrong ? We took for granted whatever they said as honest and true. But were we wrong ? Has this Qatargate crisis been taken out of context and is being manipulated by some foreign powers? Or just the Judge Claise made some mistakes which resulted in his forced resignation from the case by the lawyer of Marc Tarabella MEP?
The resignation could signify the end of this Qatargte and the beginning of what some commentators described as “Belgiumgate” A simple example which supports this theory is how Judge Michel Claise dealt with Maria Arena MEP who was left aside despite her involvement with Panzeri for many years. Commentators argue that the personal friendship between Arena and Calise could be the reason or the business siness relations between their family members.
Michel Claise who had so far opened and conducted the investigation has resigned. The accusation of the conflict of interest is pending since his son Nicolas was in business from 2018 with Maria Arena MEP, Claise’s son co-founded “in equal shares with five other shareholders,” including Ugo Lemaire, son of Arena, “the Brc&Co company, which specializes in the sale of CBD, legally sold cannabis.”
ilgiornaleditalia regarded the above news as a “bomb” which comes a few days after the release of Eva Kaili, one of the top faces of the case.
The resignation, according to a note from the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, the decision was taken “as a precautionary measure and to allow justice to continue its work peacefully and to maintain a necessary separation between private and family life and professional responsibilities”.
“Recently” then “some issues appeared that could raise some questions about the objective functioning of the investigation.” The risk is that the resignation of Claise could mean a delay in the work of the Belgian investigators. The prosecutor’s office could legitimately receive a flurry of requests for inadmissibility of the investigation by the lawyers of the suspects, with the subject of an alleged conflict of interest. Kaili has already sued.
A spokesman for Belgian justice minister Vincent Van Quickenborne said Claise had voluntarily stepped aside to avoid the “perception of a conflict of interest”, adding: “This will have no impact on the course of this case
Media Reactions
German Newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung accused Judge of Qatargte as potentially “biased” “Michel Claise, senior investigator in the corruption scandal around the EU Parliament, resigns from his office because of possible bias. This is good news for the accused. Does the whole case now become a farce?”
Greek City Times news website justified the resignation of Calise as an attempt to “rescue for his name” and as a result of pressure from a letter sent by Eva Kaili to the Parliament whereEva Kaili appealed to the European Parliament for a violation of her immunity. Through her defence lawyers, she maintains that she was under surveillance by “secret services of Arab countries.In a new joint statement, Eva Kaili’s lawyers, Sven Marie and Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, emphasise that “Eva Kaili was monitored during the period she participated in the Pegasus committee” (the committee of the European Parliament that investigates phone surveillance cases).” Said the website
Maxim Töller, lawyer for Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, one of the arrested MEPs and who has denied any wrongdoing, was the first to identify the link between Nicolas Claise and Lemaire. He called on Monday for Michel Claise to step aside.
“What bothers me in this dossier is that he knew about the conflict of interest from the first day that the name of Maria Arena was cited. And despite all that, he took charge of the case,” Töller said in an interview with Belgian television’s RTL News on Tuesday.
Reforms are needed – Old-New Calls
Emilie Dupont and Frédéric Schoenaers published a research paper in 2017 with a roadmap to reform the Justice system in Belgium titled, “Reform of the Belgian Justice System: Changes to the Role of Jurisdiction Chief, the Empowerment of Local Managers”
Meanwhile the Council of Europe said in 2022 that “Belgium not investing enough in justice system… only’ invests 0.22% of its budget in its justice system, a “modest budgetary effort,” according to the European Commission for the Efficiency of Justice (CEPEJ).
According to Thebulletin.be major operation with the Belgian justice system aims to make it more efficient and productive overall. The need to tighten up operations stems from a lack of resources. Courts and tribunals say they are under pressure, and citizens want a justice system that is more modern and closer to their needs.“We are in a period in which justice wants to dust itself off,” explained Fabienne Bayard, president of the College of Courts and Tribunals which is leading the initiative.
