The European representative accused of a financial scandal will remain in prison

The Greek European MP Eva Kaili, implicated in a resounding financial corruption scandal believed to be linked to Qatar, will remain detained Wednesday after her court appearance was postponed until December 22.

Kylie, who maintains that she is innocent, is suspected of having received sums from Doha to defend the interests of the emirate, which is currently hosting the FIFA World Cup finals.

Three other suspects imprisoned since Sunday in a “file of corruption, money laundering and organized crime within the European Parliament” appeared before the Brussels Court of First Instance on Wednesday.

The Federal Public Prosecutor announced that Francesco Georgi, who is Kylie’s companion, will remain in pretrial detention, as will the former European deputy, Pier Antonio Panziri.

The third suspect, Nicolo Vega-Talamanca, an official of the NGO “No Peace without Justice”, was released on the condition that he wear an electronic bracelet.

“The case is closed” for Kylie, who was unable to appear in court on Wednesday due to a prison strike, said Andre Risopoulos, one of Kylie’s Brussels-based defense lawyers.

Earlier, lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos told AFP that Kylie “had nothing to do with the cash that was found in her home… She wasn’t aware of the existence of this money”.

He added that his client, who was sacked on Tuesday from her position as Vice-President of the European Parliament, was innocent, denying false rumors that she had received bribes from Qatar.

However, bags full of securities worth 150,000 euros were found in her apartment in Brussels, according to a Belgian judicial source.

The lawyer pointed out that Francesco Georgi could have “he alone answers about the existence of these funds”, and an Italian Georgian who lives with Kylie in Brussels and was arrested by the authorities in connection with the same case.

Kylie’s father was caught with a bag containing 750,000 euros in cash.

Finally, €600,000 was confiscated from the home of Pier Antonio Panzeri, an Italian former socialist MEP who now heads an NGO in Brussels.

Qatar strongly denied these accusations, but a judicial source confirmed to AFP that Belgian investigators suspect this country.

Speaking for the first time about the scandal that rocked his country, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said that the case “undermines … democracy at a time when populism prevails”.

“I hope this issue will be resolved quickly… Because it affects the prestige of Europe,” he added in a speech to representatives of the Greek community in Brussels.

Eva Kayley, the 44-year-old former TV presenter who was elected in January 2022 as Vice-President of the European Parliament, visited Qatar in early November, where she praised, in the presence of the Qatari Minister of Labor, Ali bin Samikh al Marri, the reforms implemented by the country in the field of the working conditions.

On Friday, she was expelled from the Greek Socialist Party (Pasok Kinal), in which she was considered a controversial figure, and Monday was excluded from her political bloc in the European Parliament.

Members of the European Parliament voted 625 out of 628 on Tuesday to remove her from her post as Vice-President of the European Parliament.

According to sources within the Greek Socialist Party, the party leadership, which has previously faced other corruption cases, is also pressuring Eva Kaili to give up her seat in the European Parliament.

On Tuesday, the head of the Greek Socialist Party, Nikos Androulakis, proposed to the General Assembly of the European Parliament the creation of “a special body responsible for examining the assets of members of the European Parliament and the way in which they were obtained”.

For her part, the President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, considered this issue an attack on democracy.

The scandal has also caused shock in Greece, where corruption cases continue to make the population weary.

Many Greeks expressed their shame at seeing the former TV presenter of Mega channel embroiled in such a scandal.

On Monday, the Greek Anti-Money Laundering Authority announced the freezing of all its assets.

The Greek press has long touched on the special links between Eva Kylie and the Russian-Greek tycoon Sulfur Ivan Savvidis, owner of the PAOK football club and former deputy of the State Duma in Russia.