Corruption scandal: Francesco Giorgi now under electronic monitoring

Francesco Giorgi, the home accomplice of Greek MEP Eva Kaili and one of many protagonists on the centre of the corruption scandal engulfing the European Parliament, was free of jail on Thursday however will stay below digital monitoring.

The choice was taken by a Belgian choose after a listening to in Brussels.

The Federal Prosecutor’s Workplace of Belgium won’t enchantment the ruling, the workplace mentioned in a brief assertion.

Giorgi will stay below pre-trial detention however below digital surveillance. He has been charged with participation in a prison organisation, corruption and cash laundering, the identical costs confronted by Kaili.

The couple has a 23-month-old daughter.

Giorgi and Kaili have been arrested on 9 December as a part of the continuing investigation into an alleged cash-for-favours scheme that concerned “massive” sums of cash and “substantial” presents reportedly paid by Qatar and Morocco in a bid to affect the European Parliament’s decision-making.

Qatar and Morocco vigorously deny the accusations, calling them unfounded claims.

Apart from Giorgi and Kaili, three different people have been criminally charged: former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri and Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, who’re nonetheless in jail, along with NGO director Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, who has been freed.

One other socialist MEP, Andrea Cozzolino, was arrested in Italy and is preventing extradition to Belgium.

Panzeri, the presumed ringleader behind the cash exchanges, has struck a plea cope with Belgian authorities below which he admits his guilt in bribery and commits to sharing “revealing” data.

It is unclear if Panzeri’s confession had any impact on the choice to launch Giorgi below digital surveillance, a request that was not too long ago denied to Kaili herself.

Who’s Francesco Giorgi?

Francesco Giorgi is Eva Kaili’s home accomplice and one of many suspected key gamers within the cash-for-favours scheme.

In keeping with his LinkedIn profile, Giorgi holds a level in political science from the College of Milan and has been working as an accredited parliamentary assistant since 2009.

Giorgi started his profession within the hemicycle as an assistant to Pier Antonio Panzeri and in 2019 moved to the workplace of Andrea Cozzolino. Throughout his time in Brussels, the 35-year-old turned romantically concerned with Kaili, then a member of the socialist group (S&D).

Below the management of each Panzeri and Cozzolino, Giorgi labored within the parliament’s delegation for relations with Maghreb nations, often called DMAG, which covers Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Mauritania and Tunisia.

Since his arrest in December, Giorgi is believed to have adopted a collaborative perspective with the Belgian authorities, sharing key particulars on how the supposed graft operation labored behind the scenes.

In keeping with paperwork obtained by Le Soir and La Repubblica, Francesco Giorgi has confessed to being a part of an “organisation” utilized by Qatar and Morocco to affect European policy-making. The Italian assistant has tried to exonerate Kaili by accusing his former boss, Andrea Cozzolino, and Marc Tarabella of accepting money by means of Panzeri’s administration.

Giorgi acted as translator for Panzeri, who doesn’t converse English, throughout conferences with Qatari officers that have been intercepted by the Belgian police, Le Soir reported.

Kaili’s lawyer says she feels “betrayed” by her accomplice as a result of Giorgi’s supposed participation within the prison scheme turned the Greek MEP, by extension, into an confederate.