New major twist in “Qatargate”, the European Parliament corruption case involving Qatar and Morocco. A Belgian MEP was arrested this Friday in Liège; he had been in the crosshairs since the start, and his home had been searched two days after the arrest of his colleague, Greek MEP Eva Kaïlí.
With our correspondent in Brussels, Pierre Benazet
The fate of Marc Tarabella seemed played since the lifting of his parliamentary immunity by the European hemicycle last Thursday. He is currently arrested for a hearing and was taken to Brussels to be presented to the investigating judge. The magistrate must decide within 48 hours whether or not to place the MEP in provisional detention. Several searches took place this Friday, February 10 in the morning in the Liège region, in particular at the town hall of the village of Anthisnes, of which Marc Tarabella is also the mayor, as well as in his bank safe.
The noose had been tightening around him since last December 11 and the search of his home for which it was necessary to bring the President of the European Parliament urgently from Malta. His lenient statements on Qatar had already been noted and the former MEP Antonio Panzeri at the center of the corruption network, would have paid him 120,000 euros.
Marc Tarabella has already been expelled from his parliamentary group and from the Belgian Socialist Party; his Italian socialist colleague Andrea Cozzolino, whose immunity has also been lifted, is also in the hot seat with a search of his home in Belgium this Friday.
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