The elected representative is implicated by his former Italian colleague Pier Antonio Panzeri, key suspect in the file, who decided to collaborate with the investigators.
MO12345lemonde with AFP
He is the first Belgian personality questioned in this scandal. MEP Marc Tarabella, arrested on February 10, was charged and placed in pre -trial detention on Saturday in the investigation carried out in Belgium on suspicions of interference by Qatar and Morocco in the European Parliament. The 59-year-old socialist elected representative was imprisoned by the investigating judge after his indictment for “corruption”, “money laundering” and “belonging to a criminal organization”, announced to the France-Presse agency (AFP ) Eric Van der Sijpt, spokesperson for the federal prosecutor’s office.
implicated by the key suspect in the file, the ex-Italian transfused Pier Antonio Panzeri, Marc Tarabella claims his innocence. “He never touched the slightest gift or the slightest amount of money against any position,” reaffirmed his lawyer on Saturday evening, Maxim Töller, on the RTL Belgium channel. “Caution would have been not to put someone in prison on the simple statements of a person who admits to being a corrupt,” added M e töller, saying “amazed” by the decision of judge Michel Claise.
Silver suitcases
Three other people, including the Greek MEP Eva Kaili, are already imprisoned in this scandal which broke out on December 9, 2022 and led to a wave of arrests in Brussels. On that day, Belgian investigators got their hands on around 1.5 million euros in cash in suitcases or bags discovered in particular to the homes of Brussels of M me kaili and Pier Antonio Panzeri , also imprisoned. Both the authorities of Morocco and those of Qatar firmly denied all corruption.
m. Panzeri, a former socialist EurOPU (2004-2019) who became leader of NGOs in Brussels, admitted in January before the investigators that he orchestrated this fraud. The Italian sixties, who is the “repentant” of the file, is committed to specific declarations on the corruption system and the people involved, in exchange for a limited sentence to one year in prison. According to the Belgian press, he said in December 2022 before the investigators that he paid to Mr. Tarabella “between 120,000 and 140,000 euros” in several times for his aid in the files related to Qatar. “Defamation!” Proted M e töller on Saturday.
The name of Marc Tarabella appeared very early when this scandal broke out. As of December 10, his home near Liège had been searched, but no liquid money had been discovered. He had not been arrested. Belgian justice had to wait until the end of the immunity lifting procedure in Parliament on February 2, to consider any coercive measure.
Change of tone
In the European Parliament, Mr. Tarabella expressed himself a lot on the allocation of the organization of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, and some MEP colleagues were surprised by his change of tone as the event approaches. Whoever described as “casting error” in 2015 this allocation by FIFA had praised in plenary session in November 2022 the “progress” of the emirate on the issue of workers’ rights.
In the same survey, another socialist MEP, the Italian Andrea Cozzolino, was under house arrest in Italy on Saturday, the day after his arrest under an arrest warrant issued by the Belgian justice. He had been deprived of his parliamentary immunity on February 2 like Mr. Tarabella.