“Bags of tickets” were found at the home of MEP Eva Kaili, before her arrest. She and her husband Francesco Giorgi are suspected of “corruption” and “money laundering”.
[Mis à jour le 12 décembre 2022 à 22h51] Eva Kaili is not known in France, but it is indeed a very famous personality in Greece. In her country, this 44-year-old young woman is a star, who recently made the front page of certain TV magazines, for having presented television news for several years on the Mega channel, until 2007. That year, she decided to engage in politics and became elected MP for her country at the age of 29, then, in 2014 and then in 2019, elected to the European Parliament in the group of Socialists and Democrats. She had been vice-president of the European Parliament since January. But her political future now seems very obscure: arrested on December 9 by the police on suspicion of corruption and money laundering, she has been in prison since Sunday December 11.
What repercussions for Eva Kaili?
On Saturday December 10, Roberta Metsola announced the suspension of her mandate as Vice-President of Parliament. The next day, Sunday December 11, Eva Kaili was finally arrested and imprisoned for “corruption” therefore. Early Monday evening, December 12, facing MEPs in Strasbourg, the President of Parliament Roberta Metsola declared that she had “announced an extraordinary conference of the Council of Presidents to launch a procedure linked to Article 21”. A procedure to end the title of vice-president of Eva Kaili.
Roberta Metsola was also particularly firm. “There will be no impunity!” she launched, promising “an internal investigation” and a reform of the way in which lobbies can act, as well as “more transparency”. “We will launch a reform process to see who has access to our premises, how these organisations, NGOs and people are financed, what links they have with third countries, we will ask for more transparency on meetings with foreign actors”, she said exactly.
The case also had repercussions in Greece for Eva Kaili. Thus, Monday, December 12 in the morning, the Greek Authority for the fight against money laundering indicated that all the assets of Eva Kaili had been frozen. “Bank accounts, safes, companies and any other financial assets” are concerned, it was specified. Note that the measure also applies to relatives of Eva Kaili.
What do we know about suspicions of corruption?
Eva Kaili is suspected of having received very large sums of money to take political positions in favor of Qatar. A large judicial investigation, led by Judge Michel Claise, brought to light elements leading to the arrest warrant of four people, including Eva Kaili, for “criminal organization”, “corruption” and “money laundering”. On December 9, Eva Kaili’s father was arrested, along with her Italian companion, Francesco Giorgi, employed as a parliamentary assistant. According to information from the Belgian newspaper The Echothe magistrates of the Central Office for the Repression of Corruption (OCRC), in charge of the investigation, are carrying out investigations into a probable vast system of corruption aimed at buying the public word of political figures of the European Union, in the aim of improving “the country’s image in public opinion” and “weighing in on key issues”.
If Eva Kaili is in prison, it is because the judges considered that a situation of “flagrante delicto” prevented the elected official from benefiting from her parliamentary immunity. On Saturday, bags of cash were seized from his home. “The total amount of the sum found is considered to be six figures”, still indicates The Echowho adds that “600,000 euros in cash were found Friday morning, at the home of another suspect”.