Eva Kaili breaks silence on Qatargate: “In investigation blatant violations of European law”

Brussels – One year ago, from Jan. 11 to Jan. 13, 2023, former Vice-President of the European Parliament Eva Kaili, during her long detention, was transferred to an isolation cell in the Haren Prison, Belgium. In the cold and without the possibility of washing. “Tortured,” denounced her lawyers. A year later, Kaili has decided to break her silence in an interview that will air tonight (Jan. 15) on Quarta Repubblica, the talk show hosted by Nicola Porro in prime time on Retequattro.

In Kaili’s words, all the anger and bitterness over an investigation in which there would have been “blatant violations of European law,” and which lacked “the presumption of innocence and the impartiality of judges.” The Greek socialist, who has served six months in pre-trial detention on charges of belonging to a criminal organization, bribery and money laundering, makes a promise: “I will prove my innocence, there is no proof of the charges against me. They used me to create a political case.”

Eva Kaili is not the first to point the finger at the Belgian justice system and express serious doubts about how the investigation was carried out. Before her Niccolo Figà Talamanca, human rights activist and secretary of the NGO No Peace Without Justice, was released unconditionally after two months in pre-trial detention. Here are Kaili’s responses, previewed by Eunews.

“There are some people, related to the conflict of interest for which the investigating judge Michel Claise retired, who were not involved in this investigation, neither arrested nor questioned. Let us ask why,” she explained, bringing up the name of MEP Maria Arena, who was not involved in the investigation. Arena’s son had emerged as a business partner with the magistrate Claise’s son, which is why he withdrew from the investigation in June 2023.

On preventive detention, Roberta Metsola’s former deputy said “It is unacceptable that such violations of rights happen in the heart of Europe. I asked to be heard in the European Parliament, but this has not happened yet. I think it is only fair that citizens know what happened before the European elections before they go to vote.”

Accusations also for Pier Antonio Panzeri, the former MEP at the centre of the scandal, who on January 17, 2023, decided to sign an agreement to cooperate with the Belgian justice system: “From that moment he started lying by also mentioning my name. Panzeri accepted the agreement in exchange for the release of his wife and daughter. In both his case and mine, our families were used against us. To pressure me the first days they told me that my daughter would be placed in the care of social services. To get me to confess something I did not commit.”

A final jab at former investigating magistrate Claise and his decision to run in the national elections in Belgium: “I think that in the face of all this, of a magistrate who has shown that he has political ambitions, who had to step down because of a conflict of interest and who has conducted the whole case in this way, serious questions should be raised in all citizens about the whole Qatargate investigation.”