Francesco Giorgi – the partner of Greek MEP Eva Kaili and one of four people arrested in the Belgian prosecutor’s ‘Qatargate’ investigation – allegedly admitted bribery charges against him.
“I did everything for money I did not need,” he is quoted saying in court documents in the hands of Belgium’s daily Le Soir ad Italy’s La Repubblica.
The reports also alleged that Giorgi admitted that he had acted illegally and that he was repentant.
The 35-year-old native of Milan went to Belgium in 2009 to study and made his career in the European Parliament under the Social Democrats’ ranks.
He apparently also tried to protect his partner, the now revoked vice-president of the European Parliament and mother of their 22-month-old daughter, by demanding that she be released from detention.
Kaili, the Greek MEP suspected of accepting large sums of money to lobby in favour of Qatar, did not appear as expected at a pre-trial hearing on Wednesday in Brussels.
Kaili is among those charged with participating in a criminal organisation, corruption and money laundering.
A judicial source on Wednesday said that she requested a delay and that she will instead be heard on 22 December.
The Belgian judge instead questioned Kaili’s partner, Giorgi, and former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri. As well as an unnamed NGO director, whom Italian media have identified as Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, secretary-general of No Peace Without Justice.
