In the coming months, the Brussels Indictment Chamber (KI) will check the regularity of the procedure in the file on suspected corruption within the European Parliament. From now on, all parties involved will also have access to the file, in order to prepare for the debates.
The federal public prosecutor’s office has been investigating possible interference by Qatar and Morocco to influence the European Parliament’s economic and political decision-making for some time. Both countries are said to have tried to influence decisions and resolutions of the European Parliament through former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri.
Several politicians, including Panzeri, former Vice-President of the European Parliament Eva Kaili, Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella and Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino, were charged in the course of the investigation. The lawyers of Greek Eva Kaili have now asked the KI to check the regularity of the procedure. According to them, European legal rules regarding parliamentary immunity have been violated. The AI will now investigate the entire procedure.
“The case has been postponed to May 14, 2024, but it is a relay date,” the lawyers said after the hearing. “All parties involved will have access to the file in order to prepare.”
A conclusion and argument calendar will then be drawn up in May regarding the debates on the regularity of the procedure. In the meantime, the investigation into the suspected corruption continues. That investigation is now in the hands of the Brussels investigating judge Aurélie Dejaiffe, after her predecessor Michel Claise withdrew from the file in June.
This article is originally published on bruzz,be
