Eva Kaili says: She did not know about the money found in her house!
Eva Deschamps / December 14, 2022
Eva Kaili is one of the MEPs implicated in the corruption case involving Qatar. During a search of her home, the Belgian justice came across 600 000 € in cash…
Eva Kaili, the Greek MEP implicated in a high-profile corruption scandal involving Qatar, "did not know the existence of the money" found at her home in Brussels, her lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos told AFP on Tuesday.
The elected representative, deprived of his post of vice-president of the European Parliament, has "no connection with the money found at his home (...) she did not know the existence of this money," said Michalis Dimitrakopoulos during an interview at his office in Athens.
He reaffirmed that his client was "innocent" while bags filled with banknotes worth 150,000 euros were discovered in his apartment in Brussels, according to a Belgian judicial source.
The lawyer, who spoke several times with Eva Kaili incarcerated since Sunday in Brussels, stressed that "only his companion (the Italian Francesco Giorgi with whom she lived)" could provide "answers on the existence of this money.
Mr. Giorgi is one of the three other people imprisoned in this investigation into the scandal that has shaken the European authorities and caused a shock wave throughout Europe and particularly in Greece.
The 44-year-old socialist politician is suspected of having been paid by Doha to defend the interests of the emirate which is currently hosting the World Cup.
Qatar has firmly denied the accusations, but a judicial source confirmed to AFP that this country was indeed suspected by the Belgian investigators.
Dimitrakopoulos also said that "tomorrow (Wednesday)" Eva Kaili will "request her release" to the judicial authorities in Brussels.
"She is not a fugitive or a suspect for any other crime," the lawyer added, saying he hoped his client would be released on parole.
He vehemently rejected the "false rumors" that Eva Kaili had received bribes from Qatar.
She will fight to prove her innocence", he assured, "and inform her fellow MEPs (...) that the link between her name and alleged corruption on the part of Qatar or any other country or Gulf State is totally unreal", he stressed.
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