The Belgian judge in charge of the Qatargate case issued a decision allowing Kylie to remove the electronic tracking bracelet, based on the fact that the ongoing investigations no longer require pre-trial detention. After a four-month precautionary arrest, Kylie left prison to be subject to house arrest, against the background of an investigation into suspicions of corruption that rocked the European Parliament.
The lawyer for the Greek representative, Eva Kaili, the former vice-president of the European Parliament, who is one of the main suspects in the “Qatar Gate” scandal, announced that his client will resume her duties next week after lifting the monitoring by means of the electronic bracelet that she was subject to.
“Next week she will be in the European Parliament to carry out her duties,” Kylie’s Greek lawyer, Michalis Dimitrkopoulos, told Greek TV channel Sky.
The lawyer indicated that Kylie will also ask Parliament to determine whether her surveillance, arrest and imprisonment constitute a violation of her rights as a member of the European Parliament.
On Thursday, the Belgian anti-corruption judge in charge of the Qatargate case lifted the electronic bracelet monitoring that Kylie was subjected to in Brussels.
Kylie was arrested in December in the Belgian capital during raids, and released in mid-April, but placed under house arrest with an electronic bracelet monitoring system. Kylie was a main suspect in the scandal that rocked the European Parliament, but she denied all charges against her.
“Qatar Gate” is the name given to a judicial investigation into suspicions of corruption in the European Parliament, which are believed to be linked to Qatar and Morocco, which deny any involvement in this case.
This month, two other suspects in the corruption case in the European Parliament benefited from the lifting of their house arrest. They are the Belgian European MP Marc Tarabella, who pleaded completely innocent like Kylie, and Francesco Georgi, partner of the Greek deputy and former parliamentary aide to Peter Antonio Panziri.
The latter is a former member of the European Parliament (2004-2019) and a central figure in the case, and is still subject to the electronic bracelet system, one of the methods of preventive detention in Belgium.
Dimitrkopoulos insisted on Friday that Panziri was the “mastermind” behind it and that he had not found Kylie’s fingerprints on the money seized by the police. “She believes she will be vindicated when the case goes to trial,” he added.
