Qatargate, European arrest warrant for Cozzolino revoked

The MEP Andrew Cozzolino, elected in Pd quota, returns free. With a double decision that comes from the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office and the Naples Court of Appeal, the investigation called “Qatargate” marks an unexpected twist.

In the afternoon, the first unexpected measure: the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office revokes the European arrest warrant, the one for which a close tug-of-war was engaged with Cozzolino’s defence. Because of that mandate, the Belgian judiciary had demanded the extradition of Cozzolino, the green light arrived only on May 17 after months of hearings, postponements and battles with stamped paper. However, Cozzolino’s delivery to the Belgian authorities was in fact frozen pending the decision of the Cassation on the appeal presented by the defence. A decision that you will no longer need now. With the step back of the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, the lawyers Dezio Ferraro, Federico Conte and Raffaele Bifulco have announced that they are abandoning the procedure. The about-face of the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office is linked to an agreement with Cozzolino’s defenders: the MEP will soon be questioned, the appointment is for June 19th.
A few hours later the second piece of news arrives: due to the revocation of the Mae, the Court of Appeal of Naples in turn revokes the house arrest to which Cozzolino was in fact still subjected.
According to the investigators Cozzolino, from 1 January 2018 to 15 July 2022, as a member of the European Parliament, president since 2019 of the Delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and co-president of the Euro-Moroccan Joint Parliamentary Commission, as well as as a member of the Pegasus special commission, in competition and in association with others, he allegedly “unduly received, on behalf of the Moroccan government, probably from this Atomun, money to exercise his European parliamentary functions in order to favor the interests of Morocco within of the European Parliament”.