Nine months after the much-maligned Qatargate scandal, the case is even threatened with collapse, reports Politico in an article as Eva Kaili’s line of defense is now turning to the legal control of the process with the argument of the violation of her parliamentary immunity.

According to the report, Eva Kaili, the former vice-president of the European Parliament who was arrested and charged with corruption in December, is launching a legal challenge aimed at overturning the entire investigation, claiming that the police and secret services acted illegally when they pursued her.

Her advocates Eva Kaili will plead their defense today at the Palace of Justice in Brussels, where the federal prosecutor has called a meeting to consider the legal side.

Kaili’s advocates claim that the Belgian secret services and the police breached EU laws protecting her parliamentary immunity of their client and possibly other suspects, according to Politico.

Kaili’s lawyers have filed a request for “judicial review of the process” with federal prosecutors, which triggers a review of those claims by three independent judges. In the brief, Kaili seeks to compel the court to “invite all parties to comment on this matter, set a date for the proceeding to proceed.” She argues that “the parliamentary immunity she enjoys has been breached and that the criminal prosecution against her must therefore be declared inadmissible”.

Before starting any legal proceedings, Kaili’s lawyers argue, Qatargate investigators should have made a formal request to Parliament to waive her immunity, which did not happen.

Instead, she was stripped of her parliamentary immunity in December when Kaili was deemed to have been caught red-handed committing a crime. Belgian police had then raided her apartment in Brussels, arrested her and seized bags containing around €150,000 in cash. The search also included other people, while a total of one million euros were seized.

“If they rule that the evidence was collected illegally, then it will not be able to be used in court,” said Coccolino’s lawyer, Domenico Vincenzo Ferraro, who was invited to today’s meeting. He said he was approached, as was the lawyer for Mark Tarabella, the third current MEP accused in the case, to strengthen the line of defense for Kaili.