Marie Arena – one of the two Belgian MEPs implicated in the Qatargate corruption scandal – was paid a home visit on Wednesday by the case's investigating judge, Aurélie Dejaiffe.
"I was called today to be present at my home following the visit of the investigating judge as part of the investigation into Qatargate," Arena told Belga News Agency via her lawyer, Michèle Hirsch. "I had also informed the investigating judge that I was at her disposal. I am convinced that the investigation will confirm that I am not involved in any way in this case."
The judge's visit comes on the same day that Belgian media reported that Arena's name was mentioned 14 times in an Excel spreadsheet compiled by Francesco Giorgi, another key figure involved in the scandal. The document appeared to reveal extensive lobbying activities by European officials on behalf of the Mauritanian, Moroccan, and Qatari Governments.
Arena, who has not been formally charged by the Belgian authorities, resigned from her position as Chair of the European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights in January, after Politico reported that she had failed to properly declare that her accommodation and flights to and from Doha on 8 and 9 May last year had been paid for by the Qatari Government.
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In March, leaked testimony from Italian former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri – who, like Giorgi, has admitted to accepting bribes and is now cooperating with federal investigators – revealed that he and Arena had stayed at a luxury hotel in Marrakech in 2015 on a trip largely funded by the Moroccan Government. However, Panzeri also claimed that Arena was unaware of who actually sponsored the trip.
Last month, news broke that the investigating judge who until recently presided over the Qatargate probe, Michel Claise, twice came close to formally requesting the suspension of Arena's parliamentary immunity. Claise subsequently recused himself from the investigation after it was revealed that his son had co-founded a business with Arena's son in 2018. He was replaced by Dejaiffe.
The second Belgian MEP implicated in the scandal is Marc Tarabella, who has been accused by Panzeri of accepting bribes of up to €140,000 to support pro-Qatari policies. Like Arena, Tarabella denies any involvement in the scandal. However, unlike Arena, he has been formally charged.
Update: Late on Wednesday the Federal Prosecutor's Office (FPO) announced that it had carried out six searches in "places directly or indirectly linked to" Arena and her family, including at her home. It noted that the searches were conducted "in the framework of a case of suspected corruption in the European Parliament".
"Documents and ICT equipment were in particular seized and will be analysed," the FPO said in a press release, adding that Arena was not detained as part of the investigation.
