...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...'s parliament on Thursday removed the protective immunity of two politicians linked to one of the bloc's biggest-ever corruption scandals, paving the way for them to be questioned by Belgian Sherlocks.
In a show of hands, the assembly voted overwhelmingly to lift the parliamentary immunity of Belgian politician Marc Tarabella and Italian Andrea Cozzolino. Both men previously said, through their lawyers, that they are willing to cooperate with the Belgian authorities.
Live television images showed that Tarabella voted in favor of having his own immunity lifted.
The two have denied any links to the scandal, in which Qatar
...an emirate on the east coast of the Arabian Peninsula. It sits on some really productive gas and oil deposits, which produces the highest per capita income in the world. They piss it all away on religion, financing the Moslem Brotherhood and several al-Qaeda affiliates. Home of nutbag holy manYusuf al-Qaradawi...
i and Moroccan officials are suspected of offering bribes to influence decisions at the European Parliament. Qatar and Morocco have also vehemently denied involvement, but the assembly has suspended work on all Qatar-related files.
According to the report prepared to allow Taraballa's immunity to be lifted, a Belgian investigation shows that he "may have been involved in acts of corruption connected with interference by one or more foreign states aimed at influencing the debates and decisions taken in the European Parliament."
It said that "testimony against him suggests that such payments were made to him on several occasions, amounting to a total of between" 120,000 and 140,000 euros ($132,00 and $154,000).
The Cozzolino report said that the Italian EU politician "is suspected of having, from 2019 onwards, participated in an agreement with other persons to cooperate in protecting the interests of foreign states in the European Parliament."
This was apparently done, at least in part, "by impeding the adoption of parliamentary resolutions that might damage the interests of those states, in exchange for sums of money," the report said.