Qatargate: “Eva Kaili knew about the money” and tried to suppress evidence

New facts about Qatargate, Eva Kaili, her partner, Francesco Giorgi, and former MEP and “brain” of the scandal, Antonio Panzeri, are revealed by the Belgian newspaper Le Soir and the Italian La Repubblica.

In today’s publications, there is talk of the ring’s modus operandi and the first reactions of the Greek MEP, who remains in prison.

According to Le Soir, Eva Kaili‘s partner was relieved after the conclusion of his questioning, during which he allegedly tried to exonerate the ousted vice-president of the European Parliament.

“Eva obviously knew about the existence of the money and its source since we lived together, but she was not part of the network. She had told me many times to stop because I was putting her at risk in relation to her duties.”

It is noted that Eva Kaili‘s line of defense until now is based on the excuse that what happened was the result of the shadowy machinations of Panzeri with his aide and her partner; machinations which, as she claims, she did not want to know about.

“I told my father ‘take the suitcase with the money and the bottles'”

For its part, La Repubblica reports what Eva Kaili allegedly said to the police officers who interrogated her after her arrest in the December 9 operation, where she was asked to answer three main questions:

Who did the money belong to?
Why were they at her house?
Why did she ask her father to hide them when he found out about Georgie’s arrest?

“After the arrest of my partner I entered his office. I looked through his things to find out why he was arrested,” Kayli reportedly told the Belgian police, according to the publication.

She then reportedly told them that she found the suitcase with the money, a computer and a mobile phone: “so I called my father, who was with my daughter. I asked him to come and get the suitcase. It was a suitcase from Panzeri that my partner was keeping. I knew my father would be with my daughter because I had put a bottle in the suitcase.”

Eva Caili, according to La Repubblica, then described the phone calls she made: “At first I tried to call Panzeri but I couldn’t find him so I tried to contact Marc Tarabella and Maria Arena. They didn’t know why Panzeri wasn’t answering.”

The Greek MEP also described that “I opened the suitcase, I also opened the safe. I knew he (Francesco Giorgi) was saving something for his former boss, Antonio Panzeri and possibly for his current boss, Andrea Cozzolino.”

In the same deposition, Eva Kaili also referred to another suitcase with money that was at home: “This money was what he had borrowed (including Giorgi) to buy the apartment.” According to La Repubblica the loan for the purchase of the apartment in Brussels was in the name of Eva Kaili and the cash “was the contribution of my partner. In that bag was about 50-60,000 euros, I don’t know why I had no intention of investigating his affairs.”

The nefarious ring

For its part, Le Soir focuses on Giorgi’s testimony about the operation of the ring, with her partner Eva Kaili stating that it all started in 2018 when Panzeri was the president of the Human Rights Committee of the European Parliament.

According to the report citing what Giorgi allegedly told the police, the idea of lobbying for Qatar belonged to the Arab country’s defense minister with whom Panzeri agreed.

This means, as the Belgian newspaper underlines, that it all started when Panzeri was still a member of the European Parliament. “At the beginning of 2019, the collaboration started. We had fixed the fees, which I have trouble remembering, for our interventions. It was in cash,” Giorgi reportedly told the police, according to the report, while Panzeri is said to have testified that everything started in October-November 2019, even though he was not an MEP.

According to Giorgi’s description, a few months later the system became more professional with the establishment of the NGO Fight Impunity “because we had to find a clean system that would not raise the alarm”.

Giorgi is said to refer to plane tickets to Doha distributed by Panzeri to associates without, however, naming any other MEP as having benefited from the Qataris’ gift of luxury accommodation during the World Cup.

Francesco Giorgi appears, finally, talking about lobbying both in favor of Morocco and in favor of Mauritania: “Mauritania had a problem with their image and that’s why they hired Panzeri. I rented an apartment to the Mauritanian ambassador and Pancheri received 25,000 euros in cash.”