On December 9, on the "United Nations International Anti-Corruption Day", the largest corruption scandal in the history of the European Parliament was exposed. Belgium police issued a statement on the same day saying that they conducted raid inspections of 16 locations (including the private residence of MPs in Brussels , the capital of Belgium). Police seized a suitcase containing 600,000 euros (about 4.4 million yuan) of cash at the home of former European Parliamentary MP Panzre, and several tote bags filled with cash were seized at the home of European Parliament Deputy Speaker Eva Kelly.
Eva Kelly
Belgian police took action on the 9th and 10th and detained 6 people. On December 12, Belgian prosecutor accused the European Parliament Deputy Speaker Eva Kelly and three others of "participation in criminal organizations, money laundering and corruption." According to him, two of the six people detained on the 10th have been released. The European Parliament is one of the three most important institutions of the EU . Kelly has been an influential member of the EU since 2014. Among the four accused, there is Kelly's partner and an assistant to a member of the European Parliament, Francesco Georgie. According to parliamentary staff, Kelly's parliamentary office on the 10th floor of the Brussels parliamentary building and Georgie's parliamentary office on the 15th floor were both blocked by Belgian police. It is reported that Kelly's father was also detained, and police suspected that he might have participated in the corruption campaign of "carrying cash in suitcases".
"For months, investigators from the federal judicial police have suspected that the economic and political decisions of the European Parliament have been affected." The Belgian prosecutor's office said in a press release on the 10th, "This is achieved by paying large sums of money or providing large gifts to third parties with important political and strategic positions in the European Parliament." A Belgian official directly involved in the investigation said the investigation had been underway for at least four months, and corruption occurred during this period, and possibly even earlier. Hours after the news of her detention was made public, Kelly's Pan-Hellenic Socialist Movement Party (PASOK), who was in charge, fired her, while the European Parliament's Social Democratic Party suspended her post. "We are shocked by the allegations of corruption in European institutions," said Social Democratic Party spokesman Jan Berners. Daniel Flund, a member of the European Parliament and co-chair of the European Parliament's anti-corruption group, said the incident became one of the worst corruption scandals in the European Parliament in recent decades. "While this may be the most shocking case of suspected corruption seen in years, this is not an isolated incident," said Michel van Holten, director of the Transparency International's EU branch. He believes that the European Parliament has had problems such as lax financial management and lack of supervision for decades.
Red Star News Reporter Wang Yalin Intern Reporter Deng Shuyi
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