The Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office has asked the European Parliament to waive the parliamentary immunity of two MEPs in connection with the Qatargate scandal.
According to Belgian newspaper Le Soir, the two MEPs are Elisabetta Gualmini and Alessandra Moretti, members of the Italian Partito Democratico, (PD), the country’s Social Democratic party.
Moretti and Gualmini are reportedly linked to Qatargate through text exchanges with Italian MEP Antonio Panzeri, who was indicted in December 2022 along with his associates.
According to Le Soir, Gualmini’s name first appeared in the case file a month earlier, in November. Both were initially mentioned in the investigation when the scandal broke on December 9.
These requests by the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s Office will officially be announced on Monday, as per procedure, by President Roberta Metsola at the opening of a new plenary session in Strasbourg.
Qatargate is a major corruption scandal that erupted in December 2022, involving allegations that Qatar and Morocco bribed Socialist MEPs in the European Parliament to influence EU policies.
Authorities seized large sums of cash during raids in Belgium, leading to the arrest of key figures, including Greek MEP Eva Kaili and former Italian MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri.
News of the waivers came as Ilaria Salis, an Italian “antifascist” elected as an MEP for the Green and Left Alliance (AVS) in June 2024, faced trial in Hungary for allegedly assaulting neo-Nazis in Budapest in 2023.
Hungary is also seeking to lift her immunity, a move the PD has vocally opposed, framing it as political persecution.
Brussels Signal reached out to the Socialist and Democrats group in the European Parliament, but as of time of publication had not received a reply.
The European Union has introduced only “cosmetic changes” in its fight against corruption, according to Emily O’Reilly, the European Ombudsman. https://t.co/F8kvTUHf0j
— Brussels Signal (@brusselssignal) September 11, 2023
