Police raid Brussels homes of European Parliament officials as corruption scandal unfolds

A scandal of unprecedented proportions is unfolding in the European Parliament, with millions in cash seized from current and former members of parliament accused of accepting bribes.

The scandal is unfolding on Brussels' doorstep, as police raid the homes of European politicians. More than €1.5 million in cash was reportedly seized from the homes of Italian ex-MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri and Greek MEP Eva Kaili.

Police suspect that members of the European Parliament accepted bribes from Qatar, a country already facing accusations as a result of its holding of this year’s World Cup despite an abysmal track record when it comes to human rights.

Kaili's lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos said on Greek television that Kaili had not received any bribes from Qatar: “Her position is that she is innocent – she has nothing to do with the Qatari bribes.”

But Dimitrakopoulos said he was unaware as to whether large sums of money had been found in his client’s home, and in the hands of her father who had come to visit her in Belgium.

Kaili's father was reportedly intercepted by police at the Sofitel hotel in Brussels and discovered to be in possession of a suitcase overflowing with cash.

This allowed police to obtain a warrant for Kaili's home without requesting a waiver of the parliamentary immunity that normally would have protected her.

Valuables, suspected to have been given to her by Qatari officials, were found and seized in the residence along with bags of cash.

Panzeri, Kaili and Francesco Giorgi, an assistant of Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino, have all been charged and placed under arrest by investigating judge Michel Claise, the federal prosecutor's office announced on Sunday.

The three, along with a fourth man imprisoned in the case, will appear in court on Wednesday at which point the council chamber will decide whether or not to keep them in detention.

In the meantime, more searches are being carried out at the European Parliament in Brussels, along with searches in Italy.

“Since Friday, with the support of the European Parliament's security services, the IT resources of 10 parliamentary assistants have been 'frozen' in order to prevent the disappearance of data that could be relevant to the investigation,” reads a press release from the federal public prosecutor's office.

“The purpose of the search at the European Parliament was to seize this data. On Sunday 11 December, searches also took place in Italy, an operation that could be carried out thanks to the support of Eurojust.”

So far a total of 20 searches have been carried out, 19 of those in private homes and one in the European Parliament offices themselves.

“Several hundred thousand euros were seized in three different places: €600,000 in the home of one of the suspects, several hundred thousand euros in a suitcase in a Brussels hotel room and about €150,000 in a flat belonging to a member of the European Parliament,” the press release says.

The federal public prosecutor's office says this investigation has been ongoing for several months after federal judicial police investigators began to suspect that Qatar was trying to influence the economic and political decision-making of the European Parliament by paying large sums of money or offering significant gifts to third parties with political and/or strategic positions within the parliament.

There were 16 searches conducted on Friday in Ixelles, Schaarbeek, Kraainem, Forest and Brussels, and six people were arrested.

Apart from the two aforementioned politicians and assistant, among them are Kaili’s partner, father and an Italian lobbyist in Brussels.