The Belgian Police had been investigating for four months the alleged payment of bribes to MEPs by Qatar

BRUSELAS, 12 Dic. (EUROPA PRESS) -

The Belgian Police have been investigating for four months the plot of corruption, money laundering and criminal organization for which Qatari envoys allegedly paid bribes to several MEPs and staff of the European Parliament, at whose headquarters in Brussels new searches were carried out this Monday, while held the plenary session in Strasbourg (France).

The searches throughout this Monday have been carried out in a dozen offices of MEP assistants that were already sealed on Friday when the first inspections and arrests were made in relation to the case, as reported by the Federal Prosecutor's Office.

In parallel and together with Eurojust, the agency in charge of judicial cooperation, searches were also carried out in Italy, indicates the Prosecutor's Office, without giving more details about this branch of the investigation.

The president of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, has affirmed since the opening session of the plenary session in Strasbourg that she feels "proud" of the way in which the institution has collaborated in the investigation, at the same time that she has expressed her "rage, fury and sadness for the facts investigated.

The Belgian authorities have established the synchronization between their researchers and the European institution, which allowed, for example last Friday, that with the help of parliamentary security services the computer devices of several people were "frozen" to prevent them from making them disappear. information that may be relevant to the investigation.

"The enemies of democracy for whom the existence of Parliament is a threat will not stop. Their malicious plan has failed, our services, of which I am incredibly proud, have worked with national law enforcement and judicial authorities to break this criminal network", summarized Metsola.

Metsola, in fact, had to accompany the Belgian authorities during one of the searches carried out at the home of a MEP because this is required by the Belgian Constitution in investigations involving national deputies.

In total, the Belgian authorities have carried out around twenty searches and six people were questioned, four of whom were arrested and will testify before the Court on Wednesday.

Among the detainees, the Greek MEP Eva Kaili, one of the fourteen vice-presidents of the European Parliament whose removal from office is about to be decided by the plenary session in Strasbourg but who has already been stripped of her functions and responsibilities by Metsola.

Investigators found about 600,000 euros in cash at his home, another "hundreds of thousands" of euros in a suitcase in a Brussels hotel - in the possession of Kaili's father according to various Belgian media - and another 150,000 euros in the home of another MEP.