Qatargate suspect Eva Kaili set to return to work at European Parliament – Reuters

ATHENS — MEPs could soon expect a reunion with their colleague Eva Kaili.

Five months after being arrested by Belgian police as part of the ongoing investigation into allegations of corruption that have rocked the European Parliament, EU lawmaker Eva Kaili now intends to return to work.

A day after Belgium’s prosecutor’s office announced that the once-feted EU lawmaker was no longer under house arrest, Kaili’s lawyers said she was set to return to her job at the European Parliament.

“As of today…Eva Kaili is free to leave her residence and fully exercise all her rights and obligations, deriving from her status as a member of the European Parliament,” her lawyers Sven Mary and Michalis Dimitrakopoulos said. in a joint statement.

“The restrictive condition of the ban on leaving Belgium, which was imposed on her, does not bother her, since Kaili will only return to Greece after her judicial justification”, they declared, adding that “the evidence which attests of Kaili’s innocence are increasing every day.”

However, as this restriction also prevents her from traveling to Strasbourg in France for the plenary sessions of the European Parliament, she still cannot fully exercise her functions as a European legislator.

Dimitrakopoulos confirmed to POLITICO that she still could not travel to Strasbourg, but said that would soon be resolved.

Kaili was one of the first to be arrested last December in raids by Belgian police as they launched a wide-ranging investigation into whether foreign countries, including Qatar and Morocco, had been implicated in the corruption of European legislators. It became known as Qatargate.

After her detention was extended several times, she was transferred from prison to house arrest with an electronic monitor in mid-April, pending trial.

By removing his electronic tag, Kaili will be able to move freely and join other former Qatargate detainees such as Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella, who also recently had court-ordered surveillance removed and was seen again in the European Parliament this week. .