11 Apr. (EUROPE PRESS) –
An Italian court has again postponed the hearing to extradite MEP Andrea Cozzolino to Belgium in the framework of the scheme of bribes paid by Qatar and Morocco to gain influence in the EU institutions, known as ‘Qatargate’.
The Naples appeals court, chaired by Maria Rosa Caturano, has postponed the hearing until May 2 after a request from the MEP’s lawyers who asked to review prison conditions in Belgium before extradition.
“The judges accepted the three preliminary questions presented by the defense,” explained Dezio Ferraro, Cozzolino’s lawyer, who is under house arrest, as reported by the newspaper ‘La Reppublica’.
The Democratic Party (PD) announced in mid-December that MEP Andrea Cozzolino, head of the European Parliament delegation for relations with the Maghreb, had been “cautionally” suspended as a member of the party.
Both Cozzolino and Belgian Socialist MEP Marc Tarabella, who were colleagues in the Socialists and Democrats group in the European Parliament, are suspected of having favored the interference of Qatar and Morocco in the decisions of the European Parliament.
