According to media reports, Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino was arrested on Friday night in an investigation related to alleged corruption in the European Parliament.
Italian police forces first tried to arrest Cozzolino at his residence, but the Italian press service was unable to locate him there. Ansa and news agency reuters Report. Police from the Italian Financial Guard reportedly confronted the legislator with a European arrest warrant upon his discharge from a clinic in Naples, and took him to Poggiorele prison.
The arrest came at the behest of the Belgian authorities, who launched an operation on Friday morning Detention of Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, Cozzolino and Tarabella both saw their immunity in a full season last Thursday, Paved road way for Belgian investigators to take them into custody.
Belgian police also carried out new raids on Friday linked to both Cozzolino and Tarabella.
Earlier on Friday, Belgian police searched Cozzolino’s home in Brussels, and sealed his office in the European Parliament, but did not search, a spokesman for the Belgian prosecutor confirmed. In addition, a safe deposit box belonging to Tarabella at a bank in Liège was searched, as well as several offices in the Walloon city of Antinous, where Tarabella is still mayor, the prosecutor said in a press release.
according to parliamentary reportsPossible violations of Belgian law by Tarabella and Cozzolino may include corruption, participation in a criminal organization and money laundering. However, in its communication on Friday, the prosecutor’s services only mentioned corruption and money laundering.
Late last week, the Belgian investigative judge led the case Free From jail one of the four original detainees in the case, Niccolò Figa-Talamanca – Secretary General of No Peace Without Justice, one of the non-governmental organizations involved in the Qatargate corruption scandal.
Three other suspects – former European Parliament vice-president Eva Cali, her partner Francesco Giorgi and former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri – are still in prison. Panzeri in January make a deal To cooperate with investigators.
Both Tarabella and Cozzolino deny any wrongdoing.
Camille Gijs contributed reporting.