Eva Kaili kept behind bars as prosecutor’s ‘trophy,’ lawyer claims

Eva Kaili, the Greek MEP on the centre of the corruption scandal engulfing the European Parliament, won’t confess with a view to get out of jail, her lawyer has mentioned, insisting on her innocence and accusing Belgian authorities of conserving her behind bars as a “trophy.”

“It’s excessive time that Ms Kaili is launched and that her presumption of innocence is revered,” Sven Mary advised Euronews in an unique interview.

“There isn’t any longer any cause to maintain Ms Kaili in jail,” he claimed.

Kaili has been in pre-trial detention within the Haren jail, positioned on the outskirts of Brussels, since her arrest on 9 December. She was reportedly caught within the act and her parliamentary immunity was instantly lifted.

The 44-year-old lawmaker was then charged with participation in a prison organisation, corruption and cash laundering.

Her arrest despatched shockwaves throughout Brussels and dropped at mild a sprawling investigation right into a cash-for-favours scheme that concerned “giant sums of cash” allegedly paid out by Qatar and Morocco with a view to affect European policy-making.

Each international locations deny any wrongdoing.

Kaili was later faraway from her place as one of many European Parliament’s vice presidents and her celebration membership was suspended.

“Circumstances like Ms Kaili’s are thought of as a trophy or an emblem and they’re proven just like the World Cup,” her lawyer claimed.

“Ms Kaili is lifted as an emblem to say: ‘Even should you maintain excessive workplace, you’ll stay in jail.’ And that is made particularly to say to the opposite lawmakers: ‘Don’t commit corruption as a result of you’ll go to jail for a very long time.’”

As a part of the continuing probe, 5 individuals have been arrested and stay criminally charged by Belgian authorities: Eva Kaili, her home accomplice Francesco Giorgi, former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, NGO director Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, and Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella.

All of them have been or will likely be launched from jail – besides Kaili.

“I can not perceive as we speak the explanation for the preventive detention, particularly when two persons are launched: Panzeri, the top of the prison organisation, and his proper arm, Francesco Giorgi. These two individuals have confessed to committing crimes of corruption,” Mary mentioned.

“This preventive detention is a way of strain to extract confessions. And I say this plainly: there will likely be no confession from Ms Kaili. There will likely be none since there isn’t a wrongdoing on her half that has been dedicated.”

The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Workplace refused to touch upon the lawyer’s accusations.

“We’ll make our level clear at courtroom,” a spokesperson mentioned.

‘Tunnel imaginative and prescient’

In his interview with Euronews on Tuesday at his workplace in Brussels, Mary repeatedly defended his consumer’s innocence and claimed the investigation had didn’t yield any new proof to justify Kaili’s continued imprisonment.

In line with the lawyer, Kaili spent the final two weeks replying to “all of the questions” posed by investigators throughout classes lasting a complete of 15 hours.

“They wish to hear sure solutions, however these are usually not the solutions Ms Kaili is giving. And when Ms Kaili would not give the solutions they wish to hear, nicely, that is not good,” Mary mentioned, accusing Belgian authorities of affected by “tunnel imaginative and prescient.”

Mary was notably important of Pier Antonio Panzeri, the presumed ringleader of the corruption scheme who has struck a plea take care of the prosecutor by which he admits to prison participation in bribery and agrees to share “revealing” particulars.

“I’ve my huge doubts whether or not Mr Panzeri is absolutely telling the reality. He’s telling his personal fact. That is fairly a distinction,” he mentioned.

Kaili’s detention, Mary claimed, is based mostly on simply two parts: Panzeri’s confession and the cellphone name Kaili made to her father, Alexandros Kailis, on 9 December, when she allegedly requested him to take away the luggage of money she had simply came upon in her condominium.

The daddy was caught on the Sofitel lodge carrying a suitcase filled with money however was later launched with out expenses.

Since her arrest, Eva Kaili has undergone a number of hearings earlier than the courtroom in Brussels however her launch has by no means been granted, regardless of pleas from her defence group.

Kaili will face a brand new listening to on Thursday, the place Mary plans to ask for her liberation beneath circumstances, though not essentially with digital surveillance.

Francesco Giorgi, Kaili’s home accomplice with whom she has a two-year-old daughter, was launched in late February with an digital bracelet, a choice that Mary credited to Giorgi’s prison admissions.

Giorgi labored as a parliamentary assistant, first for Panzeri and later for Andrea Cozzolino, a socialist MEP who can also be suspected of being a part of the cash-for-favours scheme and is now preventing extradition from Italy to Belgium.

“Will she stay beneath the identical roof as Francesco Giorgi? He is her accomplice, he is the daddy of her youngster and so they each personal the home. So I assume they are going to stay in the identical home,” Mary mentioned, talking about Kaili’s hypothetical launch.

“He has by no means accused her of something, in contrast to Mr Panzeri.”

Requested how Kaili feels about Giorgi after all of the twists and turns within the scandal, Mary quoted a Belgian saying: “You by no means wash your soiled laundry in public.”