Eva Kaili, the former vice president of the European Parliament admitted to instructing her father to hide large amounts of cash. The Greek member of the European parliament at the center of a cash-for-influence scandal implicating Qatar will remain in jail pending trial, a Belgian court has decided on Thursday. Kaili is one of four people who have been charged with corruption and money laundering in the case.
“In its order this morning, the pre-council chamber extended the pre-trial detention of EK by one month,” said a statement from the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office. If Kaili chooses to appeal against the decision within 24 hours, she will appear before a chamber at the Brussels court of Appeals within 15 days.
Investigators have seized nearly €1.5m in cash from various Brussels properties, including €150,000 from Kaili’s apartment. The other four suspects are Kaili’s partner, European parliament assistant, Francesco Giorgi, former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, and the head of an NGO, Niccolò Figà-Talamanca.
According to media reports, the arrested former Vice President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, has confessed partially to the EU corruption scandal. As daily newspapers Le Soir and La Repubblica reported Tuesday, citing investigative documents, the 44-year-old Greek admitted, among other things, to instructing her father to hide large amounts of cash before her arrest.
However, Kaili’s lawyers, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, told the press she had been “betrayed” by her partner, the father of her child.
Meanwhile, Greek authorities announced they had taken possession of a prime plot of land that the MEP and her partner recently bought on the Aegean island of Paros.