The Qatargate investigation continues and is expanding to include new names. The Federal Prosecutor’s Office confirmed to the Belgian newspaper Le Soir on Tuesday that it had requested the lifting of the parliamentary immunity of two MEPs and that these requests would be announced on Monday by President Roberta Metsola at the opening of a new plenary session, as required by procedure.

In this case, according to our sources, it is a question of lifting the immunity of two Italian MEPs from the Socialist and Democratic Group (S&D), whose names have emerged in the case of corruption and foreign interference in the European Parliament. Contacted, the S&D group did not respond.

The first is Alessandra Moretti. Reportedly close to the mastermind of the affair, Antonio Panzeri, Ms. Moretti has always denied any involvement in the case. The Italian visited Qatar, including a stadium construction site for the future World Cup, with Belgian Marc Tarabella. She also spoke during a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Human Rights at the heart of the case: the hearing by this committee, then chaired by Marie Arena, of the Qatari Minister of Labor Ali bin Samikh Al Marri on November 14, 2022. The alleged briber in the “Qatar” part of the case. Mrs. Moretti had addressed a question to the Minister in which she mentioned the last World Cup in Russia, which is interesting because a few seconds earlier, Antonio Panzeri had given his orders by telephone to his former assistant and right-hand man, Francesco Giorgi, who was present in the room: “Listen, have her make a statement saying: “But I didn’t see all this interest four years ago when she was in Russia.”

When contacted, Ms. Moretti and Ms. Gualmini did not immediately respond at the time of publication. A spokeswoman for the European Parliament declined to confirm our information, but reiterated that the procedure to lift immunity in no way affects the presumption of innocence. According to the procedure, the public prosecutor’s office asks the Parliament’s Bureau to lift the protection. Ms. Metsola will announce these requests at the opening of the next plenary session and then forward the files to the Legal Affairs Committee (JURI). The Committee will examine the files and the MEPs concerned will have the opportunity to be heard by the Committee in camera. Finally, the possible waiver of immunity has to be voted on in plenary. The whole procedure therefore takes several weeks.

The waiver of immunity allows the Public Prosecutor’s Office to formally prosecute the Members and, at a later stage, to request a possible referral to the Criminal Court.

L'articolo The Qatargate had dissolved in a soap bubble also due to the lack of credibility of the Prosecutor who originally dealt with the case. But there’s nothing to be done, the trawling starts again: accusations are once again being made against two Italian S&D MEPs. S&D is the group that most often uses moralism for political ends and that has been intransigent in the reform of the Parliament, limiting the freedom of mandate of European MEPs and turning them into a kind of automaton. The problem is the separation of legislative and judicial powers. In these times of chaos, it should be pointed out to the European left that in the race to be the purest, there is always someone purer who will purge you proviene da Bubble report.

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