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WORLD NEWS | Top lawmaker suspended in EU Assembly lobbying scandal

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BRUSSELS, Dec. 10 (AP) — The vice president of the European Union Parliament was suspended by her party group on Friday after several raids by Belgian police linked to an investigation into alleged influence-peddling in the European Parliament by the Gulf state.

The centre-left Socialist and Democratic group in the European Parliament said it “has decided to immediately suspend MEP Eva Kaili from the S&D group in response to the ongoing investigation.”

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Kelly, a 44-year-old former Greek TV news anchor, was also suspended by her party, the Hellenic Socialist Party-Pan-European Movement for Change. Pasok said it was acting “in light of the latest developments and investigations by Belgian authorities into corruption among European officials”.

Pasok and S&D declined to provide further details.

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Kerry was suspended after police conducted 16 raids in the Belgian capital Brussels on Friday as part of a corruption and money-laundering investigation involving the European Union parliament and a Gulf state, the federal prosecutor’s office said. Prosecutors declined to name the countries involved.

In a statement, left-wing groups in the EU parliament demanded that what it called the “unfolding Qatar lobbying scandal” be added to the parliamentary agenda next week so that more details about the incident could be determined and considered “appropriate” by lawmakers. response”.

Passok publicly distanced herself from comments made by Carey in the EU Parliament last month, in which she praised Qatar and said the soccer World Cup there “actually demonstrated how sports diplomacy can achieve a historic transformation of a country through reform.” Inspired the Arab world.”

Belgian prosecutors said four people were detained for questioning and investigators recovered about 600,000 euros ($633,500) in cash and seized computer equipment and mobile phones during raids in Brussels.

Prosecutors did not identify the four, but said one was a former member of the European Parliament.

The raids specifically targeted aides working for EU lawmakers, the statement said. The EU Parliament has 705 elected members from the bloc’s 27 member states. Every lawmaker has some assistants.

Prosecutors said Belgium’s federal judicial police suspected the unnamed Gulf state of trying to “influence economic and political decisions in the European Parliament”.

This was allegedly done “by making large payments or gifts to third parties with important political and/or strategic positions in the European Parliament”.

The EU parliament’s press service declined to comment on the raid and the investigation is ongoing, but said it was cooperating fully with Belgian police.

Kaili was elected in January as one of 14 vice presidents at the EU assembly, where she has served as a member since 2014. (AP)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)



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