The accusation of having “preconceived” an opinion on the guilt of Marc Tarabella falls on the Belgian investigating judge Michel Claise. The proceeding on the Euro-bribes paid by Morocco and Qatar is enriched by a new twist, after the defender of the socialist Euro-deputy, the lawyer Maxim Toeller, presented an application for the magistrate’s recusal, blocking the new ro
The proceeding, therefore, undergoes a momentary halt while waiting for the Court of Appeal to pronounce on the request of Tarabella’s lawyers. The point is that according to the lawyer Toeller, “the presumption of innocence” of the EU parliamentarian expelled from the S&D group “has been trampled on on several occasions, so much so as to justify a challenge to the investigating judge in charge of the case”. It must be said that Judge Claise’s investigation is essentially based on the accusations that in recent months have come from the two main suspects: the lobbyist Pier Antonio Panzeri and his right-hand man Francesco Giorgi, former collaborator of the MEP Andrea Cozzolino and husband of the former vice president of the Eurochamber Eva Kaili, both under arrest.
According to Tarabella’s defense, Judge Claise writes in the arrest warrant that “the defendant’s public positions were initially against Qatar, and then these positions reversed from the moment the suspicious movements of funds were detected”. Yet, lawyer Toeller points out again, “the file does not reveal any movement of suspicious funds belonging to Marc Tarabella”, as there is no “financial analysis”. The hypothesis of the movement of funds, in fact, arises from two interrogations. On 10 December Panzeri said that for Qatar’s interests in the EU, Tarabella “was rewarded several times for a total amount, from memory, of 120-140 thousand euros”. On December 13, however, Giorgi affirmed that “the corrupt deputies are Tarabella and indirectly Cozzolino”.
In the recusal instance, therefore, it is stated that Judge Claise “clearly makes his opinion on Tarabella’s guilt heard”, adding that “he clearly seems to take the contested facts for granted”. Attorney Toeller concluded that “in this investigation we have the impression that preventive detention is used to put pressure” on the suspects and “to obtain something” from those who “have recourse to the status of pentito”, such as Panzeri.
Meanwhile, the former vice president of the EU Parliament Eva Kaili, in prison since December 9, has returned to ask for parole or home detention. Once again at stake are the conditions of her detention. Furthermore, on Wednesday evening, ten Italian MEPs from the Socialists and Democrats (S&D) group – Massimiliano Smeriglio, Brando Benifei, Beatrice Covassi, Paolo De Castro, Elisabetta Gualmini, Camilla Laureti, Alessandra Moretti, Daniela Rondinelli, Franco Roberti and Achille Variati – they released a letter sent to the president of the EU Parliament, Roberta Metsola, in which they asked to monitor the conditions of detention of Eva Kaili with particular attention to her right as a mother to be with her 24-month-old daughter.
Source : Breaking Latest
