Belgian court to investigate legality of Qatargate probe in December
The Brussels Chamber of Indictment will examine whether the Qatargate probe into corruption at the European Parliament was conducted properly, the federal public prosecutor's office announced on Thursday.
For several months, the prosecutor's office has been conducting a large-scale investigation into alleged attempts by Qatar and Morocco to influence economic and political decision-making at the European Parliament.
Both countries are alleged to have attempted to influence the Parliament's decisions and resolutions through former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri and his non-profit organisation, Fight Impunity.
Those implicated in the case include Panzeri, his associate, Francesco Giorgi, and Giorgi's partner, former vice-president of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili. Others include Brussels-based Italian lobbyist Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, former Belgian MEPs Marc Tarabella and Marie Arena, and former Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino.
Postponed until autumn
In spring 2023, lawyers representing the suspects requested that the Chamber of Indictment, a chamber of the Court of Appeal, review the legality of the proceedings, but this has not yet happened.
Since then, new civil parties have joined the case and the prosecutor's office has requested that several civil parties be declared inadmissible and that access to the case file be restricted to 20 of the 27 parties now involved.
In a ruling dated 25 June, the Chamber of Indictment decided that it could not judge the admissibility of the civil parties. The prosecutor's office would also have to decide which parties would have access to the case file and to what extent. In the same ruling, the debates on the regularity of the investigation were postponed until autumn.
Police leaks
On Friday, the former head of the Belgian Central Office for the Repression of Corruption, Hugues Tasiaux, was charged with breaching professional secrecy in connection with the probe. According to La Libre, the investigation concerns leaks in not only the Qatargate case, but other cases as well.
In February, a Brussels investigating judge questioned Tasiaux and searched his home in response to a complaint filed by former MEP Marie Arena and her son, Ugo Lemaire.
Eva Kaili, former vice-president of the European Parliament, arrives at her home in Brussels in April 2023, having been released from prison on electronic monitoring. © BELGA PHOTO JONAS ROOSENS