Greece’s Socialist party has urged European Parliament vice-president Eva Kaili to quit her seat, political sources said Saturday, after Belgium arrested her in a probe into corruption implicating World Cup hosts Qatar.
“There is pressure within the party for Kaili to leave her seat at the European parliament,” a member of the party told AFP.
But another Greek politician said she was resisting.
“For the moment, she does not wish to give up her seat as she knows it would imply losing her parliamentary immunity,” the second source said.
The president of the Greek socialists (PASOK) Nikos Androulakis after her arrest on Friday said that she had been expelled from the party.
Belgian police detained Kaili, a 44-year-old former television presenter, hours after detaining four other suspects for questioning.
Kaili is the partner of one of the four, a parliamentary assistant with the European Parliament’s Socialists and Democrats group, a source close to the case told AFP.
The arrests came after a series of raids at 16 addresses in the capital Brussels which Belgian prosecutors said turned up around 600,000 euros (US$630,000) in cash.
Computers and mobile phones were also seized in a probe into an unnamed Gulf country suspected of influencing the decisions of the European parliament through cash payments or gifts to top figures in the EU assembly.
Belgian press reports claimed the country concerned was Qatar.
Source: AFP
