Qatargate, who are the “friends” of Panzeri’s “team”?

Who are the friends on whom the operational team – as the Belgian investigators emphatically call it – Panzeri–George-Cozzolino counted for bend the decisions of the European Parliament to the paid wishes of Qatar and Morocco? And who, like them, and for the same objectives of the same states, acted from within the other European institutions? The judiciary in Brussels could give an initial answer to these crucial questions in the next few days when the investigations restart the assembly could be asked to waive the immunity of the MEPs involved in the investigation.

The investigation for criminal associationcorruption and money laundering that rocked the European Parliament starting from an operation by Belgian secret service (Vsse) in coordination with those of four other countries and concerns, as written in the documents, the actions of interference within the institutions of the European Union. So not only of Parliament, where for the investigating judge Michael Claise the former MEP of the Democratic Party and then of Article One Pier Antonio Panzeri worked, the current MEP dem Andrea Cozzolino and Francesco Giorgi, former assistant of the first and collaborator of the second. The three would have been able to influence the policy of the Socialists & Democrats parliamentary group to limit or avoid the damage that Parliament’s decisions could have caused to the image of Qatar and Moroccowho had several problems with respect for human rights on their territories.

Give him arrests of 9 Decemberthe Federal Prosecutor’s Office in Brussels and Judge Claise have sailed under water, and perhaps for that too, beyond the generic accusations and the equally vague reconstructions that are in the documents much less detailed than required by law in Italyit has not yet been possible to understand well what the suspects did, when and in exchange for exactly what.

THE bags of cash (over 750 thousand euros) found in the Brussels house that Eva Kailithe Greek vice president of the Parliament dismissed for the investigation, shares with her partner Francesco Giorgi (both arrested) are impossible to justify politically, but must be translated into some criminally relevant conduct on the part of the accusers
which, in the few papers that have emerged, do not explain, for example, what Kaili did besides holding cash. The same goes for the other 600,000 euros unearthed in Panzeri’s apartment, whose origin is known only to be linked to Qatar and Morocco through triangulations or direct deliveries. After the arrests, the detectives dedicated themselves to analyzing the seized documents and computer equipment. from which it is said that news and new actions could soon arrive.

In still secret deeds there cannot be other details. For example, what and of what precise nature are the relationships between Panzeri, Giorgi, who is considered his right-hand man and 50% partner in business in the shadow of the NGO Fight impunityand what are referred to as friends in the S&D group. What are these friends? The names of the Italian-Belgian deputy Marc Tarabella appearwhich was also searched on 9 December in the presence of President Roberta Metsola who arrived from Malta to witness the deed. Then there are very vague references to Maria Arena, also an Italian-Belgian MEP, to the Italians Alessandra Moretti and Brando Benifei, both pds who, like Tarabella and Arena, are not under investigation and have decisively excluded any type of conditioning and favour, returned or received. And their involvement does not seem plausible. Moretti, for example, recalled that she had publicly taken a stand against Qatar.

The situation is more complex Cozzolino. The Belgian services, as reported by the judge, say of him that there is no doubt that with Panzeri and Giorgi he would have cooperated with the Moroccan 007 taking orders through Morocco’s ambassador to Poland Abderrahim Atmoun and meeting with Rabat Dodge agency’s general manager Yassine Mansouri.

If there is a network that belongs to Panzeri and Giorgi, inevitably all the shirts are yet to be revealed. There is talk of requests from the federal prosecutor’s office in the next few days for the waiver of immunity for some MEPs, while that of Kaili has already been arrested in the act of committing a crime after she had told her father to take a suitcase with 600 thousand euros inside. It will be the moment when the investigators will have to discover at least some of the cards they jealously keep in store.