Belgian court decides to extend EU lawmaker’s pre-trial detention by 1 month

By Ahmet Gencturk

ANKARA (AA) - A Belgian court decided Thursday to extend former European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili’s pre-trial detention by one month, Greek media reported.

Kaili, a Greek Member of the European Parliament (MEP), is suspected of being at the center of one of the European Union’s biggest corruption scandals. She is suspected of having been paid by Qatar to lobby for the Gulf state's interests.

Earlier, Kaili’s lawyer, Andre Rizopoulos, said her client is actively cooperating with the authorities conducting the investigation and rejects the corruption charges, according to public broadcaster ERT.

Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, Kaili’s other lawyer, reiterated that she is innocent.

Both lawyers also confirmed that they demanded Kaili’s release from prison with an electronic bracelet.

The broadcaster highlighted that her lawyers’ arguments are in line with Kaili’s previous testimonies in which she claimed she neither knew of nor participated in the acts for which her husband, Francesco Giorgi, is accused.

In addition, she claimed she never had ownership or possession of the money found in her house in Brussels, was never bribed, and had no personal agenda for Qatar.

Greek news outlets and broadcasters, citing Italian media, claimed that Kaili also cleared Giorgi, who was accused of taking bribes from Qatar.

She said the money that was recovered at her house in Brussels belonged to former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, whom Giorgi once worked for as a parliamentary assistant, and gave another Italian politician’s name during her interrogation by Belgian police.

Kaili, one of the 14 vice presidents of the European legislative body, who is from Greece's central-left PASOK-KINAL party, was arrested on Dec. 9 by Belgian police after her house was searched on corruption charges allegedly linked to Qatar.

She was subsequently removed from the European Parliament's vice presidency and dismissed from PASOK-KINAL over the corruption allegations.

Qatar has dismissed the "baseless and gravely misinformed" allegations, "categorically rejecting any attempts to associate it with accusations of misconduct."