European Parliament Sacks Vice President

The European parliament has removed Greek legislator Eva Kaili as one of its vice presidents after she was implicated in a bribery and corruption scandal that prosecutors said involved a Gulf country.

Kaili was dismissed from her post on Tuesday following allegations that the country had bribed her to buy influence in the assembly. Reports quoting sources close to the investigation identified the country as Qatar, which dismissed the allegations.

She was among four people charged by Belgian prosecutors with corruption, money laundering and participation in an criminal organisation. She has denied any wrongdoing.

The government of Qatar rejected “any attempts to associate it with accusations of misconduct. Any association of the Qatari government with the reported claims is baseless and gravely misinformed,” a Qatari official said.

“The State of Qatar works through institution-to-institution engagement and operates in full compliance with international laws and regulations,” the official added in a statement.

Prior

Police in Belgium arrested Kaili on Friday. She is one of 14 vice presidents of the European legislative body.

Investigators said about 1.5 million euros ($1.58m) in total was found.

Prosecutors,”600,000 euros ($630,000) in cash was found at the home of one suspect. 150,000 euros ($159,000) at the apartment of a parliamentarian and several hundred thousand euros in a suitcase in a hotel room”.

Some of these “bags of cash” were found in Kaili’s home, a judicial source said, leading a judge to conclude that her parliamentary immunity from prosecution would not apply.

Roberta Metsola, the head of the European parliament, said in a tweet that “this decision [to dismiss Kaili] is effective immediately”.

“We will continue to fully cooperate with relevant national law enforcement and judicial authorities,” she added.

“There will be no sweeping under the carpet. Our internal investigation will look at what has happened and how our systems can be made more watertight,” Metsola said, as 625 parliamentarians voted to remove Kaili from her post, with only one voting against and two abstaining.

Also read: European Parliament: Vice President Credibility At Stake

On Wednesday, a Belgian judge will decide whether to keep them in prison until then. Two other suspects were released after being initially detained.

Several European Union members, including Germany, said that the 27-nation bloc’s credibility was at stake. Countries that have faced criticism from the assembly, including EU member Hungary, said it had lost the moral high ground.

“From now on the European parliament will not be able to speak about corruption in a credible manner,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto wrote on Facebook.