Belgian investigators from the General Inspectorate of the Police (AIG), accompanied by a judge, have searched the Central Office for the Suppression of Corruption (OCRC).
According to Belgian media outlets Le Soir and Knack, the raid on February 7 was connected to leaks in the Qatargate investigation.
Qatargate is an ongoing political scandal involving officials of the European Parliament.
The head of the OCRC, Hugues Tasiaux, reportedly had his offices and his home searched by police and was brought in for questioning.
According to public news outlet VRT NWS, Tasiaux was the only person questioned.
Brussels Signal reached out to the Brussels Prosecutor’s Office but had not receivde a reply at the time of writing. Further details about the investigation are not known at this time.
Le Soir wrote that former Socialist MEP Marie Arena and her son, Ugo Lemaire, who was recently arrested in a major international investigation into alleged cannabis trafficking, had filed a complaint that, the paper said, could have caused the investigation.
The pair allegedly claimed that the confidentiality of the Qatargate investigation was breached, citing numerous leaks to the press.
Ugo Lemaire, son of Belgian former Socialist MEP Marie Arena, has been arrested in a major international investigation into alleged cannabis trafficking. https://t.co/Bhyw4BjsBl
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) February 4, 2025
In September 2024, a conflict within the anti-corruption office surfaced, with complaints about the requirement for investigators to obtain approval from senior management before submitting a police report to the prosecutor’s office.
Some suggested that gave the impression that sensitive investigations were being covered up and that management was trying to influence the investigators’ work in an unauthorised way.
Earlier, a report by the public media outlet RTBF, called La Belgique sous influence, had highlighted what it said was possible influence by the Moroccan government.
A member of the OCRC then drafted a police report on potential corruption and interference, leading to a criminal investigation by the Brussels prosecutor’s office.
Following that, Le Soir reported an investigation had been launched against the Moroccan government regarding potential influence and possible corruption.
Within the OCRC, there were concerns that its director’s demand for approval was a direct response to this political turmoil, potentially aimed at discouraging future sensitive investigations.
Secretary-general of No Peace Without Justice @niccoft denies having ever received anything from either Qatar or Morocco and slammed the “systemic failure of the investigative process and the judicial process” in Belgium. #Qatargate https://t.co/GurA9aZgs7
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) December 18, 2023
