Kaili in fresh bid to secure jail release

Jailed Greek MEP Eva Kaili has appealed to the highest court of cassation in Belgium in a fresh attempt to secure release from pre-trial detention.

“We went to the supreme court, because in this way we manage to go from two months to one month in order to have the right to apply for a release from prison,” her lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, said in a written statement.

Kaili was arrested on December 9 in Brussels and has been in prison for three months.

She is charged with corruption, money laundering and membership in a criminal organization in a case that has been nicknamed Qatargate.

The Qatargate scandal came to light in early December after authorities launched a series of raids across Brussels, and in Italy, seizing hundreds of thousands of euros.

In addition to Kaili and her partner Francesco Giorgi, former MEP lawmaker Pier Antonio Panzeri and the head of a charity group, Niccolo Figa-Talamanca have also been charged.

Panzeri has since reached an agreement with Belgian prosecutors to act as an informant.

The former European Parliament vice-president’s pre-trial detention was recently extended by two months by judicial authorities.

On February 25, Kaili had appealed to the European Court of Justice against the decision of the European Parliament to lift her immunity, claiming that it is “illegal.”

According to reports, the appeal said that the basic condition for lifting an MEP’s immunity, that they be caught in the act of committing an offense, does not apply in this specific case.

Euractiv reported that the appeal relates to an earlier case that came to light just days after the Qatargate scandal and concerns the salaries of her aides in the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.