from Sputnik News:
European Parliament Vice-President, Greek politician Eva Kaili, was detained on Friday along with four other individuals amid a probe into possible bribery after Belgian authorities carried out several arrests and searches in Brussels on December 9.
Four individuals have been charged in Belgium by prosecutors investigating allegations of corruption at the European Parliament.
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“Four individuals have been arrested by the Brussels investigating judge who is leading the investigation. They are charged with participation in a criminal organization, money laundering and corruption. Two persons have been released by the investigating judge,” the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
It did not identify those in custody, but according to media reports, Greek MEP Eva Kaili is among the four suspects, along with her parliamentary adviser, Francesco Giorgi, a former Italian Social Democrat MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri and a Brussels lobbyist.
The two released individuals were reportedly Kaili’s father and Luca Visentini, the secretary-general of the International Trade Union Confederation.
Eva Kaili has since been stripped of her duties and tasks in the European parliament and expelled from the Greek PASOK-KINAL (Panhellenic Socialist Movement — Movement for Change) party.
‘Bags of Cash’
Kaili, along with five others, had been taken into custody after police carried out raids on a number of properties in Brussels on December 9, seizing computers, mobile phones and large amounts of cash. According to some local reports, it was the Greek MEP’s father who was allegedly apprehended leaving a hotel with €600,000 ($632,000) in a bag.
Belgium’s federal prosecutor revealed that officers were probing allegations of corruption in the European parliament, as they believed a Gulf country had resorted to bribes and gifts in an effort to influence decision-making there.
“It is suspected that third parties in political and/or strategic positions within the European parliament were paid large sums of money or offered substantial gifts to influence parliament’s decisions,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
Some Belgian media suggested that Qatar was the country in question, and the probe was ostensibly linked with the holding of the FIFA World Cup 2022 in that Gulf state. In response, a Qatari official was cited as rejecting any allegations of misconduct , saying:
