A Danish member of the European Parliament on a corruption case involving Qatar: “I am terrified and will fight to get to the bottom of the matter.”
Local Danish websites and many other sites, such as the famous Daily Mail newspaper and EuroNews website, reported late Friday evening the arrest of Eva Kaili, Vice President of the European Parliament, in a case directly related to the State of Qatar, according to the news.
According to sources, Belgian police searched 16 addresses in Brussels on Friday as part of an investigation into “Qatar’s lobbying activities in the European Parliament.” At least four people were arrested during the operation, including Eva Kaili, Vice-President of the European Parliament, and her partner (husband or boyfriend), according to several media outlets, including the Belgian newspaper Knack and Politico. .
According to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir and the French news agency AFP, it has been confirmed that Greek member of the European Parliament Eva Kaili is among those arrested.
The Greek MP is one of 14 vice-presidents of the European Parliament and part of the Greek Social Democratic Party (S&D) in the European Parliament.
As a result of this case, Kylie was expelled from the Greek Social Democratic Party immediately on Friday evening, according to an announcement by party leader Nikos Androlaki via Twitter.
Danish MEP Niels Følsang of the Social Democratic Party expressed his “horror” on Twitter regarding the issue, which he described as a “corruption scandal in the European Parliament”: “I am horrified and outraged. We voted for a strong statement in November when we focused on the biggest sporting scandal in the world: the World Cup in Qatar. Yet several members took to the podium and defended Qatar, which is completely incomprehensible. I will fight for it, and we will get to the bottom of this.”.
The Belgian prosecutor's office said in a statement that the search on Friday was part of a larger investigation into "organized crime, corruption and money laundering".
There have been suspicions for several months that a Gulf state may have influenced the European Parliament’s economic and political decisions.
According to the statement, this was done by sending “large sums of money” and “large gifts” to officials who hold an important political and/or strategic position in parliament.
Niels Wollsang also mentioned that the European Parliament issued a statement on the human rights situation in Qatar, in which the statement criticized the working conditions of migrant workers in connection with the FIFA World Cup in Qatar and mourned the many who had died in the preparations for the World Cup, but some parliamentarians, especially from the Greek S&D party and the center-right European People’s Party, hesitated to vote in favor of it at the time.
In addition, Eva Kylie made a name for herself by stating that Qatar is the “most favored candidate in the field of workers” rights,” and she did so after meeting with Qatari Labor Minister Ali bin Samikh Al-Marri.
According to the newspaper Le Soir, 600,000 euros, or approximately 4.5 million Danish kroner, were confiscated during the searches.
In addition to Eva Kaili, her partner in the operation, a former member of the European Parliament from S&D and leader of a major international labor union, was also arrested, according to the Belgian newspaper.
