Qatargate, Brussels renounces the “delivery” of the Panzeri-Corriere.it

No prison in Belgium for the daughter and wife of Antonio Panzeri who remain under house arrest in Lombardy because the federal prosecutor in Brussels renounces their delivery. It is the turning point linked to the agreement with the Belgian judiciary for which the former MEP has undertaken to collaborate with the justice by revealing everything he knows about the “maneuvers to the sound of bribes in cash” of Qatar And Morocco to influence the policy of the European Parliament. The investigation is evolving and is increasingly extending to Italy. In this context, the Belgian investigating judge is expected to arrive in Milan today Michael Claisewho will meet the magistrates and investigators working on the case.

With repentance, plus leniency for wife and daughterPanzeri first of all obtained a sentence of 5 years’ imprisonment, of which only one to be served in prison, plus the confiscation of one million euros, including the 600,000 found in his home in Brussels. Maria Dolores Colleoni And Silvia Panzeri they were arrested on 9 December in Calusco d’Adda because they were accused of being part of the head of the family’s network. The daughter, who is a lawyer, is suspected of having set up with the accountant Monica Rossana Bellina (under house arrest) a corporate structure to launder the cash paid by the emissaries of Qatar and Morocco.

«Panzeri is an unreliable witness that, in an attempt to save his daughter, his wife and himself, he will sign whatever he is asked to sign,” said the lawyer. Michalis Dimitrakopouloswho defends the former vice president Eva Kaili (still in prison). «It could involve politicians from Belgium, Germany, France», adds Dimitrakoupoulos, specifying that these are only «hypotheses not based on any knowledge. I don’t want to be misunderstood.” The response of Panzeri’s Belgian lawyer, Laurent Kennes, arrives shortly: «Mr. Panzeri has not yet been heard as a repentant. It is therefore absurd to say that it would not be credible.

Yesterday Andrea Cozzolino, the MEP from Campania involved in the investigation for which the Belgian judiciary has asked for immunity to be waived, he appeared before the Juri commission. The references to him come from the interrogation of Francesco Giorgi which speaks generically of relations of interest between Cozzolino and Panzeri. Investigations revealed links to the Moroccan ambassador to Poland Abderrahim Atmoun and an unconfirmed trip to Morocco where he allegedly met the Rabat intelligence chief. Accompanied by his lawyers, the lawyers Federico Conte, Dezio Ferraro and Dimitri De Beco, the MEP from Campania made his debut in the commission by recalling that he had asked Judge Claise to be questioned, but had not received an answer, and claimed to be experiencing “a surreal and mortifying media trial» which «is devastating me and my family on a mere suspicion», «generic and random». He is convinced that on this basis the Italian Parliament would never revoke immunity. If it were to take place in Brussels, this would expose him to the theoretical risk of arrest. On Morocco, he underlines that he only voted for a critical motion on the treatment of migrants and that he had the same relations with Atmoun as “many other colleagues of mine”, because he was president of the Morocco-EU joint commission.

For the Qatar, an accusation concerns an email sent from his address in which he asked his group to vote against a resolution on the violation of the rights of workers of the World Cup works. He declares that it was his assistant Giorgi who sent it “in total autonomy and without my assent” and that he then voted on a motion that “stigmatized Qatar’s not at all positive conduct”.