After 14 months of research on the corruption scandal in the European Parliament (Qatargate), the Belgian justice decided to call for the first time today in questioningone of the main suspects in the case – the Belgian MEP of the Socialists, Marie Arena.
As reported by the Belgian newspaper LeSoir and the RTBF television network and cited by APE, Marie Arena maintained close relations with the alleged mastermind of the case, Antonio Pancheri and was mentioned several times as a “suspect”, but she had never been called in for questioning until now.
The Belgian Socialist MEP was questioned this morning at the Central Anti-Corruption Bureau (OCRC), without threatening her freedom. The issuance of an arrest warrant for Marie Arena no way, since the Belgian authorities have not asked the European Parliament to waive her parliamentary immunity. However, according to Soir, not lifting M. Arena's immunity does not prevent a possible prosecution, should the investigating judge Aurelie Delzef decide to do so, who has replaced Michel Clez, after he resigned from the case for serious reasons of conflict of interest. , in June 2023.
As Soir recalls, the name of the former president of the European Parliament's subcommittee on human rights has been mentioned in the case file since the beginning of the investigation, but even earlier, since July 2022, when the State Security, for the first time time, she shared in writing with the federal prosecutor's office her suspicions of possible acts of interference and corruption. “Marie Arena occupies a particularly important position in achieving Qatar's goals“, the intelligence services wrote in their confidential note. “She benefits from Pancheri's advice and influence, while the latter uses Arena's position as chairman of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights to exert influence.”
Equally interesting are the hundreds of phone calls exchanged between December 2021 and September 2022 between Pancheri and the Arena. The MEP herself describes her relationship with Pancheri as a “professional friendship” and denies any other kind of relationship, however some defendants or witnesses at their hearings have claimed otherwise.
During a conversation between Panzeri and his former assistant Francesco Giorgi, intercepted by the Security Service in May 2022, Panzeri, who had just returned from Doha, explains to Giorgi that there he was given a Rolex watch that gave to a woman who participated in this trip. As stated in the case file, “this woman was not named by Pancheri”, however, “given the context of the conversation it could be Marie Arena”.
It is recalled, finally, that in the 2017-2019 period, the then president of the EP subcommittee on Human Rights, Antonio Pantzeri, had initiated a special agreement with Qatar. Marie Arena succeeded him as chairman of the committee when Pancheri left his position. Shortly after the outbreak of the Qatargate scandal, Marie Arena resigned as president of this subcommittee. To this day, Marie Arena denies having committed anything illegal and has maintained the confidence of the Socialist party in the European Parliament, unlike the Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella and the Italian, Andrea Coccolino who are accused of this case, along with Eva Kaili.
Source: News Beast
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