In the EU corruption scandal, Eva Kaili now admits some of the allegations. But in doing so, she gets caught up in contradictions. According to Kaili, what will happen now?
Eva Kaili’s lawyers have been duping the public for around ten days. After Kaili’s arrest, they always assured the Belgian authorities that their client had declared her complete innocence and ignorance. The fairy tale had a short expiry date. Because now Kaili’s statements to the Brussels investigating judge Michel Claise are circulating in the press.
Kaili’s lawyers have indirectly confirmed the authenticity of excerpts from Kaili’s testimony published by the newspapers Le Soir, Knack and La Repubblica. Kaili’s lawyers are rushing to fabricate a new story to downplay Kaili’s involvement.
The Belgian newspaper Knack reports that Eva Kaili’s Belgian lawyer sent an email to the editors on Monday evening stating: “I am personally outraged that you had access to these documents. Am I the only one who respects the rules?” In Belgium, an arrest warrant and an indictment are documents that are subject to confidentiality pending the conclusion of a case.
Furthermore, according to “Knack”, the lawyer is said to have complained that the targeted publication of some confessions was biased reporting. However, it was previously the lawyers themselves who publicly shared details. For example, Kaili asked her partner Francesco Giorgi, with whom she has been living in a registered partnership since 2020, to get the money out of the apartment, which she claims to have known nothing about.
It’s just one of the contradictions Kaili gets caught up in. Because the arrest warrant from prosecutor Claise reads it very differently. “The defendant admitted that she had instructed her father to hide the money.” She also said that she previously knew about her partner’s activities with Panzeri and that suitcases with cash were being transported through her apartment.
The arrest warrant describes how Kaili panicked about the investigation, informed her father and sent him on a journey with the suitcase of money.
Kaili is also said to have tried to warn the suspected mastermind, Pier Antoni Panzeri, and two unnamed MEPs. Kaili reportedly admitted knowing about the bribes Giorgi managed. For her lawyers, none of this is an admission of guilt. They continue to protest their client’s innocence.
Her lawyers also claim that the contents of the arrest warrant are not reproduced correctly. According to the lawyers, Kaili did not admit that she knew about the cash, saying instead that she suspected hidden funds. They’re trying to downplay Kaili’s responsibility. If she had known about the corruption money in her apartment, she should have informed the authorities.
“Eva Kaili is innocent without qualification,” Kaili’s Greek lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos told SKAI radio on Tuesday morning. “I am convinced that she is innocent. If she had confessed, she would now be free for the time being,” Dimitrakopoulos claims. Unlike his Belgian colleagues, he doubts the authenticity of the quotes from the indictment.
The lawyer describes the arrest as follows: “When Giorgi was arrested outside the apartment by the garage, Kaili was standing next to him. Giorgi was not told why he was arrested, but Kaili found out what was in the suitcase. One option would have been to report him directly to the police. The second, handing over the funds to their owners.”
Afterwards, according to Dimitrakopoulos, you know that the first option would have been the better one. However, Kaili is under no legal obligation to report her significant other. She then called Panzeri and others and asked them to take the money with “take your dirty money”. According to Dimitrakopoulos, Panzeri “owns” the money.
His client was in a “state of shock” because of the amount of money. In the end she didn’t reach Panzeri and the others and then instructed her father to get the money out of the apartment so that Panzeri could collect it from his father.
These are wild statements, but the investigation will show whether they are true.
News of Kaili’s partial confession dominated the headlines in Greece on Tuesday morning. Kaili will probably testify at Thursday’s detention hearing. The TV station Mega TV, where Kaili’s public career began around two decades ago, reported that Kaili would try to break away from her co-defendants – including her partner Giorgi.
Accordingly, she will testify that her partner had worked with his former boss Antonio Panzeri and the NGO “Figth Impunity”. However, at first she didn’t suspect anything bad because Panzeri was a former MEP with a good reputation and his NGO was committed to human rights. She also complained to Giorgi that he would be missing many hours because of his voluntary work for Panzeri.
Sources unnamed by broadcaster Mega TV have stated that Panzeri, for his part, wanted to exploit Kaili’s parliamentary immunity and therefore chose her house, which he believed to be safe from searches, as a hiding place for money.
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Kaili’s lawyers will need to further adjust their strategy. Kaili will probably try to downplay her role and, it seems, won’t shy away from blaming other people. Much depends on what the prosecution has already found out and what the co-defendants testify.
Panzeri’s apartment in Brussels was wired up and searched by the Belgian authorities in the summer while he was away on holiday. Even then, several hundred thousand euros were found.
