MEP Kaili freed from custody pending trial

Former European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili was released from pre-trial remand from a Belgian jail on Wednesday after four months of incarceration.

The Greek socialist lawmaker, who still serves as a MEP, is the most prominent individual implicated and charged in the so-called “Qatargate” bribery and influence-peddling scandal that shocked Brussels late last year. She is also the last of the defendants to be freed, albeit on strict conditions and with the obligation to wear a trace bracelet. Among others, she will be restricted to her Brussels apartment, according to her attorneys, who also referred to a “reasonable decision” that was late in coming.

The next-to-last defendant freed was Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, a day earlier.

Kaili has insisted on her innocence and that she has no relation to the hundreds of thousands of euros found in her apartment and in the possession of her father.