Eva Kaili lodged a judicial review for her illegal arrest. Greek MEP reveals to the Financial Times that her legal team has initiated proceedings to review the legitimacy of her arrest. She said that her confession was under blackmailing and shocking methods the Belgian Justice implicated in the Qatargate context. She calls it Belgiangate.
Qatargate began as the most significant EU bribery scandal in decades and, a year later, has become bogged down in legal challenges. The handling of the case by the Belgian authorities has become suspicious. Kaili stated that her legal team challenged the legality of her arrest because her immunity was illegally revoked. MEP directly blames the Belgian Criminal Justice system for being based on confessions extracted under blackmailing. She further contended that the facts do not matter in the Belgian justice system.
According to Kaili, Instead of Qatargate, this is a Belgiangate. She insisted on her innocence throughout her stay for two and a half months in prison, as she refused to make any agreement with the prosecution. The Belgian authorities commented that Eva Kaili’s father acted on her behalf and that the money he transferred was proof of her corruption. On the contrary, she never had anything to do with that money. Initially, she informed the authorities that the money in the bag belonged to Pier Antonio Pancheri. He was the alleged mastermind of the Qatargate affair.
Moreover, Corriere Della Sera noted severe inquiries about the way the Belgian authorities acted and the role of the resigned prosecutor, Michel Clez. It concentrated on the network of connections of the Belgian MEP Marie Arena with Belgian officials and, in particular, on the contacts of her son with the son of the investigator Michel Clez. Clez was compelled to withdraw from the investigation when it was revealed that his son was a partner with Arena’s son. Corriere raised the question of why Arena was excluded from Clez and the Greek MEP was involved with charges that have not been confirmed.
In the Financial Times, Eva Kaili said that her lawyers only got access to the whole case file in September 2023 and discovered there was absolutely nothing about her. She also denied allegations in recent media reports that she conducted an influence campaign on behalf of Qatar to lift EU visa provisions for the Gulf state. She contended that she worked in line with the cabinet of European Parliament President Roberta Metzola and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell. That was a pure parliamentary activity, so How could Belgian authorities scrutinise actions as she was doing her duties?
