The Belgian federal prosecutor's office intends to waive the delivery of Silvia Panzeri and Maria Dolores Colleoni , respectively daughter and wife of former MEP Antonio Panzeri in prison in Brussels for the Qatargate case and who has signed an agreement which provides for her collaboration with the Belgian judiciary , one year's imprisonment, a fine and the confiscation of all assets acquired so far for approximately one million euros.
A clarification is now awaited on the deed by the Brescia Court of Appeal to understand if both, now under house arrest, will be able to return to freedom .
Meanwhile, MEP Andrea Cozzolino , thrown into the political cauldron of Qatargate by the repentant Panzeri and identified on several occasions as the trusted man of the Moroccan 007s to influence the EU, follows the defensive line adopted since the first hours of the outbreak of the scandal and before the Justice Committee of the European Parliament he returned to the sender "all the investigative hypotheses" against him , denying any possible involvement in the dirty money tour and in the corruption activities orchestrated by the former party colleague and then Article 1 MEP in pairs with his right arm Francesco Giorgi.
Answering questions from about thirty colleagues, Cozzolino first rattled off the details of his past as president of the delegation for relations with the Maghreb countries and of the EU-Morocco joint parliamentary committees of the EP . Then he confirmed his intention to waive his immunity.
In the hearing entirely behind closed doors, the story offered allowed the MEP, elected in the Democratic Party and now passed to the Non-Enrolled Members, to "demonstrate" how his political activity in Brussels is "totally incompatible" with the hypothesis of a " his participation in a network of influence in favor of Qatar and Morocco". Accused of being the author of a pro-Doha email sent from his postal address before a vote by MEPs, that text - the politician tried to exonerate himself - in reality "was prepared and disseminated" without his "prior consent » by the former bagman Francesco Giorgi, received "as a dowry" by Panzeri's team with a practice which however - he defended himself - is "practice" at each change of legislature. Similarly, Cozzolino categorically ruled out having drawn up emergency resolutions for Rabat , indicating that he had instead signed a report in June 2021 that "contained a severe criticism" of the North African country "in relation to migration events".
(Unioneonline/D)
