Greek MEP Eva Kaili is set to be thrown out of the European Parliament today.
Kaili, embroiled in a corruption probe that allegedly involves World Cup hosts Qatar, had her term as MEP ended on Tuesday morning, according to European Parliament President Roberta Metsola.
Kaili’s ousting will be rubber-stamped if at least two-thirds of MEPs back her removal during a vote later on Tuesday.
It comes after Belgian police made fresh raids on Monday including one on a European parliamentary office as the corruption investigation widened.
In a statement, Belgium’s Federal Prosecutors Office said that the IT resources of ten parliamentary staff had been “frozen” to prevent the “disappearance of data necessary for the investigation”. They went on to say that the purpose of the search at the European Parliament was “to seize this data”.
The bloc’s top politicians have strongly condemned the corruption scandal that is shaking the EU legislative body. The EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola spoke about the “enemies of democracy for whom the very existence of this Parliament is a threat, will stop at nothing”.
A total of 20 searches have been carried out since the beginning of the operations, including 19 in private homes and the one in the offices of the European Parliament,” the Belgian investigators concluded.
The sums seized during the searches carried out so far are spectacular: “€600,000 at the home of one of the suspects, several hundred thousand euros in a suitcase in a Brussels hotel room and around €150,000 in a flat belonging to a Member of the European Parliament,” according to the federal prosecutor’s office.
In a strongly-worded speech, Metsola spoke of “malign actors, linked to autocratic third countries [that] have allegedly weaponised NGOs, unions, individuals, assistants and Members of the European Parliament”.
Four people arrested, including Kaili, have been charged with corruption and money-laundering.
(Source Euronews)
