“I maintain and will continue to protest my innocence.” Marc Tarabella, the Belgian socialist MEP targeted by the judiciary in the alleged corruption case in the European Parliament, pleaded innocent in a letter on Thursday and condemned the “interested confessions” of a key suspect. A procedure to lift his parliamentary immunity is ongoing.
The elected official was expelled from the S&D (Socialists & Democrats) group in the European Parliament and the Belgian Socialist Party during the inquiry on Wednesday. The Belgian was implicated by former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri – one of the four suspects currently jailed in this alleged corruption case, notably in Qatar – who told investigators he had paid the Belgian MEP “between 120,000 and 140,000 euros”. the newspaper l’Echo.
“I will be sentenced […] based on press articles or self-interested confessions”
“Today I still didn’t have the right to defend myself. I claim and will protest my innocence. I have never received money or gifts in exchange for my political opinions,” Marc Tarabella said in an email to the European Parliament’s Legal Affairs Committee.
“I am judged by public opinion or by some of my colleagues on the basis of press articles or interested confessions from detainees, confessions that seem to have changed over time, contrary to my position,” denounced the man.
Pier Antonio Panzeri, a central figure in the case, reached a settlement with the judiciary, at the end of which he undertook to give investigators information in exchange for a limited sentence. A “repentant” status modeled on Italian anti-mafia practice.
Marc Tarabella’s home in the Liège region was searched on December 10 as part of the investigation, but no cash was found.
The Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament will soon have to decide on the requests for the lifting of the immunity of Marc Tarabella and another Socialist MEP, the Italian Andrea Cozzolino, transmitted by the Belgian judiciary at the beginning of January.