Qatargate suspect files fresh complaint about Belgian corruption probe

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One of the main suspects in the corruption probe surrounding the European parliament and alleged interference from countries including Morocco and Qatar has filed fresh complaints on the conduct of Belgian investigators, asking for the entire case to be thrown out.

The complaint by Francesco Giorgi includes a secret recording of a conversation with a senior police officer involved in the case, who paid him a visit at home last year and complained about prosecutors and judges in Belgium serving a political agenda. The main suspects in the so-called Qatargate case last year had already requested an inquiry into the Belgian probe, which has delayed the case going to trial.

Giorgi’s lawyers on Monday submitted the 18-minute recording to the federal prosecutor’s office calling into question “the regularity” of the investigation, according to a copy of the letter accompanying the files seen by the Financial Times. 

Lawyer Pierre Monville said he was sharing the recording with all the other parties involved in the case “so everyone could draw their own conclusions”, according to the letter.

Chief police inspector Ceferino Alvarez-Rodriguez stopped by Giorgi’s apartment on May 3 2023 to return a phone that had previously been seized by the police. The conversation was recorded by Giorgi without the police investigator’s knowledge.

Giorgi had been released from jail three months earlier and was required to wear an electronic bracelet, after being arrested in December 2022 when police found hundreds of thousands of euros in cash at his and his partner’s home.

The Italian national had been a longtime parliamentary assistant to the alleged kingpin of the scheme, former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri, who was also arrested in December, with police seizing a total of €1.5mn in cash. Panzeri struck a plea deal with Belgian investigators…