Eva Kaili will be taken from the prisons of Aren, where she is being held, before the judicial council on Thursday morning and the questions are already many
By Athena Papakosta
The time for the deposition of the former vice-president of the European Parliament is counting down. Eva Kaili will be taken from the prisons of Aren, where she is being held, before the judicial council on Thursday morning and there are already many questions.
When she was taken to Royal Street on Friday, December 9, she reportedly told the prosecutor that she had previously seen bags of cash at her home at 6 Wierz Street, a few meters from the European Parliament. At the same time, however, her line of defense insists that she herself did not know about them 150,000 euros which, finally, were found in her home. In particular, her lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, explained about a week ago that, when she found out that her partner had brought the money to the house, she asked “whose money it is” and got the answer that it belonged to another person and asked that they be removed from the home. He even added that “in the attempt to remove them they were given to her father”. At this point, let us recall that the father of Ms. Kaili was arrested with a suitcase in a central hotel of the Belgian capital, which contained 750,000 euros. However, according to the Italian news agency, ANSA, a tablet, a bottle and milk were also found in it, with the report noting that “the suitcase must have been ready hours before the arrest of the Greek MEP”.
The questions about the attitude of Mrs. Kaili are becoming more and more. Why is he asking? from her father to transfer the money and to whom? Why is she giving him milk and a bottle, when these would only be useful for her two-year-old daughter? Why didn’t she call the police in the first place? And since she had knowledge – as she reportedly said during the first hours of her arraignment – about bags of money in the house why hadn’t she reacted then? If to this equation with so many unknown “x’s” we add her statements in favor of Qatar and her participation in a committee – of which she was not a member – to vote in favor of visa liberalization for travelers from Doha, then the things get complicated and nothing gets easier for her who is facing a five-year prison sentence.
The Belgian defender of Greek origin, Mrs. Andre Rizopoulos, has not yet been publicly appointed and is waiting for the process to be completed first. The “deposed” vice-president of the European Parliament will finally be brought before the judicial council on Thursday as her hearing, which was scheduled for last Wednesday, was postponed.
At the same time, the second defense attorney for the Greek MEP, Mr. Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, issued a press release yesterday for information that came to light from a Spanish-language Twitter account and shows the former president of the European Parliament under investigation as well as members of her family to be recipients of large sums of money. In particular, it states: “the documents that show Mrs. Eva Kaili and members of her family having received several million euros in their supposedly nominal accounts in Panama from a state-owned company of Qatar through the National Bank of Qatar are manifestly and maliciously falsified.”
Mr. Dimitrakopoulos also adds that: “we will immediately send the forged documents to Mr. Charalambos Vourliotis, President of the Anti-Money Laundering Authority, so that he can immediately contact the competent authorities in Panama and have their forgery authenticated, at the same time they will not be sent to the Electronic Crime Directorate of the Hellenic Police, in order to identify the forger who is trying to mislead journalists and citizens”.
Belgian and Italian authorities continue to examine cash flows in this corruption scandal inside and outside Europe with information coming in by the dropper without yet completing the puzzle. On one side is Qatar, on the other, however, is Morocco. There are four prisoners: Kaili, Giorgio, Pancheri and Talamanca. But it is not improbable that there will be more. Many are looking to Francesco Giorgi’s boss, Andrea Cozzolino, a sitting MEP, who is implicated in the investigation but has not been subpoenaed. Others are also waiting for Marc Tarabella, a Belgian MEP. At the moment, it is said that the wife Pancheri is also being taken to Brussels. According to the Italian Media, the competent prosecutor of Bressa accepted the request of the Belgian authorities for her extradition without, however, having been officially confirmed by the Italian authorities. Today, it is expected that the extradition request of former MEP Pancheri’s daughter, Silvia, will be examined accordingly.
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