The ‘leader’ of Qatargate agrees to collaborate with the Belgian Prosecutor’s Office in exchange for a lesser sentence

Overturn in the investigation of the Qatargate scandal in the Eurochamber. The alleged ringleader of the plot, the Italian Pier Antonio Panzeriwho was an MEP for the socialist group between 2004 and 2019, has reached an agreement with the Belgian Prosecutor’s Office to collaborate as “repentant” in this case in exchange for a reduction in sentences.

Panzeri is one of the three people who remain in provisional prison for Qatargate, together with the former vice-president of the European Parliament, eva kaili, and his partner, Francesco Giorgi. He is accused of belonging to a criminal organization as a leader, money laundering and active and passive public corruption. In the raid on his residence in Brussels 750,000 euros in cash were found.

The former Italian MEP was until his arrest the president of the NGO fight impunity, which is theoretically intended to advance the cause of human rights and help bring criminals to justice. But actually fight impunity served as a cover for the bribery scheme orchestrated by Qatar and also by Morocco to launder their image and buy political and economic influence in the EU.

[De las reuniones de Eva Kaili en Qatar a la redada policial en Bruselas: así se fraguó el Qatargate]

Panzeri has signed a memorandum committing itself to provide Belgian justice with details about the modus operandi of the criminal organization infiltrated in the European Parliament, as reported by the prosecution in a statement.

In addition, the former Italian MEP has promised to give researchers all the data on economic agreements with third countries (in reference, without naming them, to Qatar and Morocco); the screen structures that were created to hide the money; the ultimate beneficiaries of this money; and the names of other people involved in the plot, including those the Panzeri himself has corrupted.

[La exvicepresidenta de la Eurocámara confiesa que pidió a su padre esconder el dinero de Qatar]

In exchange for this collaboration, the Belgian courts will lower the sentences against the Qatargate ringleader. However, the punishment will include “firm imprisonment, a fine and the confiscation of all the assets acquired, which are currently estimated at millions of euros“, said the Prosecutor’s Office.

“It is about, on the part of the repentant, the commitment to make a substantial, revealing, sincere and authentic statement about the participation of third parties, and where appropriate, their own, in the offenses that are being investigated in this case,” he says. the notice.

It is the second time in Belgian judicial history since the introduction in 2018 of the called the law of pentiti (or sorry, by reference to the Italian law to facilitate the investigation on the mafias) that this procedure leads to the signing of a memorandum between the defendant and the Prosecutor’s Office.