World
Corruption scandal: Cozzolino arrested in Italy and Tarabella charged
The corruption scandal rocking Brussels continues to widen: Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino has been arrested in Naples on a European warrant whereas MEP Marc Tarabella has been criminally charged, becoming a member of a bunch of 4 folks awaiting trial.
The investigation centres on an alleged cash-for-favours scheme that concerned “massive sums” of cash and “substantial” items paid to affect EU decision-making, based on Belgian authorities.
A minimum of €1.5 million in money have been seized throughout dozens of raids.
The nations suspected to be behind the illicit lobbying are Qatar and Morocco. Each have vigorously contested the claims and denied any wrongdoing.
The arrest of the 2 lawmakers, formally related to the socialist group, was made potential after their very own colleagues lifted their parliamentary immunity earlier this month, paving the best way for the police intervention.
Cozzolino was stopped by authorities on Friday after leaving a well being clinic in Naples and was knowledgeable he was the topic of a European arrest warrant, Italian media reported.
Cozzolino was then taken to the Poggioreale jail and was later positioned on home arrest as a precautionary measure to forestall his flight.
Belgian police had tried to seek out the MEP after they went to raid his Brussels residence however he was already in Italy, resulting in the issuance of an arrest warrant.
An extradition listening to is anticipated to happen on Tuesday.
Cozzolino has stated he’s “calm” and has belief within the justice system. His lawyer defends his shopper’s innocence and vows to combat the extradition.
Scrutiny over the Italian MEP has been intense ever since his assistant, Francesco Giorgi, was arrested and charged in mid-December.
In his leaked confession, Giorgi instantly accused Cozzolino and Tarabella of accepting cash from Qatar and Morocco, a cost the lawmakers refuted.
First elected in 2019, Cozzolino served because the chair of the European Parliament’s delegation for relations with Maghreb nations, which covers Morocco, till he was eliminated over the rising suspicions.
Tarabella criminally charged
One other identify that has been on the radar of Belgian authorities is Marc Tarabella.
Tarabella was detained by Belgian police on Friday morning whereas he was in Anthisnes, a small French-speaking city during which he serves as mayor.
As a part of the operation, police searched a number of workplaces contained in the Anthisnes city corridor in addition to a financial institution protected positioned in Liège.
The next day, a decide charged Tarabella with participation in a felony organisation, corruption and cash laundering, and was despatched to the Saint Gilles jail.
These are the identical fees confronted by Greek MEP Eva Kaili, her home accomplice Francesco Giorgi, former MEP Pier-Antonio Panzeri and NGO director Niccolò Figà-Talamanca.
Kaili, Giorgi and Panzeri stay in jail, whereas Figà-Talamanca has been launched.
Separate pre-trial hearings for Kaili, Panzeri and Tarabella are scheduled to happen on Thursday, the prosecutor’s workplace informed Euronews.
Panzeri, the presumed middleman between the Arab nations and the hemicycle, has signed a cope with authorities during which he admits his felony participation in bribery and commits to sharing “revealing” particulars concerning the cash-for-favour scheme.
In line with Belgian media, Panzeri has confessed to handing over €120,000 in money to Tarabella over a number of instalments in relation to the latter’s work on Qatar-related points.
However Tarabella’s lawyer disputes Panzeri’s credibility and insists his shopper has by no means obtained any money or present in change for political affect.
“No new ingredient has been offered to corroborate the accusations of cash transactions, nothing new has been offered. The one incriminating parts are the phrases of Mr Panzeri in opposition to my shopper,” Maxim Töller stated in a press release seen by Euronews.
“It solely takes the defamation of an individual, recognised as the top of a felony organisation, to impress such a tsunami and unjustly smear Mr Tarabella.”
First elected to the European Parliament in 2004, Tarabella sat on the delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula, often called DARP, which covers Qatar, till he was requested to step down.
Again in November, Tarabella defended Qatar’s labour rights within the context of the FIFA World Cup, utilizing related arguments to these voiced by Eva Kaili in the identical plenary session.
“What’s necessary is that, when the lights of the World Cup have gone out, the constructive evolution continues not solely in Qatar, however it could possibly unfold to all of the nations of the Arabian Peninsula,” Tarabella stated, talking in French.
In early December, Tarabella voted in favour of a visa waiver for Qatari and Kuwaiti residents, a legislative file that has since then been placed on maintain.
Regardless of being stripped away from their parliamentary immunity and committee positions, each Tarabella and Cozzolino stay MEPs with a post-tax wage of €7,146 per thirty days.
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World
Climate activists glue themselves to Munich airport runway, pausing traffic
A group of climate protesters have been arrested in Germany after breaking into an airport and gluing themselves to the runway.
Six activists broke through security fencing at Munich airport in the German state of Bavaria on Saturday, according to the news outlet dpa.
Approximately sixty flights were canceled after the half-dozen protesters glued themselves to the tarmac, forcing officials to temporarily close the airport.
CLIMATE ACTIVISTS ARRESTED FOR BLOCKING AIRSTRIP IN MASSACHUSETTS
An additional fourteen flights into Munich were forced to divert to other nearby airports to avoid the disruption.
Climate protest coalition Last Generation took credit for the stunt, claiming it was intended to draw attention to the German government’s inaction on the airline industry’s environmental impact.
CLIMATE GROUP TAKES RESPONSIBILITY FOR US OPEN CHAOS, OFFERS WARNING: ‘NO TENNIS ON A DEAD PLANET’
All six protesters were arrested and charged by law enforcement.
“Trespassing in the aviation security area is no trivial offense. Over hundreds of thousands of passengers were prevented from a relaxed and punctual start to their Pentecost holiday,” German Airports Association General Manager Ralph Beisel told dpa.
“Such criminal actions threaten air traffic and harm climate protection because they only cause lack of understanding and anger,” German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser wrote about the protests on social media platform X.
The Munich incident was just one of many similar protests around the world against air transportation. Last Generation has performed at least two similar airport disruptions in Germany since last year.
World
Russian court seizes two European banks’ assets amid Western sanctions
Freezing hundreds of billions of dollars in lenders’ assets was part of dispute over gas project halted by sanctions.
A Russian court has ordered the seizure of the assets, accounts, property and shares of Deutsche Bank and Commerzbank in the country as part of a lawsuit involving the German banks, court documents showed.
The banks are among the guarantor lenders under a contract for the construction of a gas processing plant in Russia with the German company Linde. The project was terminated due to Western sanctions.
European banks have largely exited Russia after Moscow launched its offensive on Ukraine in 2022.
A court in St Petersburg ruled in favour of seizing 239 million euros ($260m) from Deutsche Bank, documents dated May 16 showed.
Deutsche Bank in Frankfurt said it had already provisioned about 260 million euros ($283m) for the case.
“We will need to see how this claim is implemented by the Russian courts and assess the immediate operational impact in Russia,” the bank added in a statement.
The court also seized the assets of Commerzbank, another German financial institution, worth 93.7 million euros ($101.85m) as well as securities and the bank’s building in central Moscow.
The bank is yet to comment on the case.
In a parallel lawsuit on Friday, the Russian court also ordered UniCredit’s assets, accounts and property, as well as shares in two subsidiaries, to be seized. The ruling covered 462.7 million euros ($503m) in assets.
UniCredit said it “has been made aware” of the decision and was “reviewing” the situation in detail. The bank was one of the most exposed European banks when Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine, with a large local subsidiary operating in Russia.
It began preliminary discussions on a sale last year, but the talks have not advanced. Chief executive Andrea Orcel said UniCredit wants to leave Russia, but added that gifting an operation worth three billion euros ($3.3bn) was not a good way to respect the spirit of Western sanctions on Moscow over the conflict.
Russia has faced heavy Western sanctions, including on its banking sector, since the start of the war in Ukraine. Dozens of US and European companies have also stopped doing business in the country.
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