Corruption scandal: Marc Tarabella wants investigating judge dismissed

The lawyer of embattled MEP Marc Tarabella has requested the dismissal of the Belgian choose main the investigation into the cash-for-favours scheme that allegedly concerned money funds from Qatar and Morocco to affect the European Parliament.

Tarabella, who used to take a seat with the parliament’s socialist group, was detained final week and charged with participation in a felony organisation, corruption and cash laundering. 

His lawyer, Maxim Töller, claims the investigating Justice of the Peace, Michel Claise, is biased and has infringed Tarabella’s presumption of innocence by assuming the lawmaker shifted his political positions on Qatar after the alleged money exchanges started to happen contained in the hemicycle.

Qatar and Morocco have vigorously denied any wrongdoing.

“The choose (Michel Claise) clearly appears to take as a right the contested info which might be the topic of the investigation he’s main. This can be a drawback,” Tarabella’s lawyer, Töller stated in an announcement seen by Euronews.

“No monetary evaluation has been carried out by the investigating choose, which is somewhat troubling.”

Tarabella, who till just lately was a part of the parliament’s delegation for relations with the Arab Peninsula, delivered in November a brief speech defending Qatar’s labour reforms within the context of the controversial FIFA World Cup and blasting the “unilateral adverse discourse” in opposition to the Gulf nation.

The next month, the Belgian lawmaker voted in favour of a visa waiver for Qatari and Kuwaiti residents, a file that has since then been placed on maintain.

It later emerged Tarabella had did not declare a working journey he made to Qatar in 2020.

In his assertion, Töller stated none of those info amounted to proof of corruption and confused that Tarabella had lengthy supported the work of human rights NGOs.

“In any case, however this, the choose can’t, at this stage, harbour and share such prejudice concerning the applicant’s guilt. His function should be to take care of absolute impartiality, holding the scales of justice equally between all events, with the only real purpose of discovering the reality,” Töller stated.

“Clearly, that is now not the case, there are sturdy suspicions of bias on the a part of the investigating choose, making him unfit to hold out his mission.”

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Workplace declined to touch upon the accusations made by Töller.

The workplace stated the request will probably be analysed by a separate choose and will find yourself in a court docket of enchantment.

Michel Claise will stay because the main investigator in the interim, a spokesperson advised Euronews. His findings will then be handed over to the prosecutor to proceed the authorized case.

Probe continues to widen

The request for dismissal was filed on Thursday morning forward of Tarabella’s pre-trial listening to, the place Töller is about to defend his shopper’s innocence and ask for his launch.

Tarabella is the fifth individual to be arrested and criminally charged as a part of the widening probe, following Greek MEP Eva Kaili, her home companion Francesco Giorgi, former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri and NGO director Niccolò Figà-Talamanca.

Kaili, Giorgi and Panzeri are nonetheless in jail, whereas Figà-Talamanca has been launched.

Panzeri has signed a plea take care of Belgian authorities wherein he admits his involvement in bribery and commits to sharing “revealing ” particulars on the cash-for-favour scheme.

In accordance 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 – a declare adamantly rejected by Tarabella’s lawyer.

One other socialist lawmaker, Andrea Cozzolino, was arrested in Italy final week and is now combating an extradition order.

The police interventions on Tarabella and Cozzolino had been made attainable solely after MEPs voted earlier this month to elevate their parliamentary immunity, which protects them from detention and felony proceedings.

Eva Kaili’s arrest didn’t require this step as a result of she was reportedly caught within the act, the one occasion that triggers the automated lifting of immunity.