Qatargate: Qatar is bribing EU officials to influence EU policy using corrupt politicians, officials & NGOs
European Parliament is at the eye of the storm when Belgian police made some arrests and seized a sizable amount of cash from two Members of Parliament. According to the Belgian Police they had made more than 10 raids and made some arrests on Sunday morning on alleged charges of money laundering, corruption, and helping criminal organizations to help Qatari officials to make Qatar's image better in Europe.
Qatar is in desperate need to repair its image due to its human rights violation in the country. Currently, Qatar is hosting the football world cup and they are desperately trying to wipe out the charges regarding poor living conditions and mistreatment of labor forces who worked in the construction of stadiums, roads, and other facilities. Qatar has also been charged with not allowing Israeli people to follow their religious rights in their country along with a grave violation of gay rights. US journalist Grant Wahl, who was detained in Qatar for wearing a rainbow shirt in support of the LGBTQ community, died while covering the FIFA World Cup. Some experts are blaming Qatar for his mysterious death while he was covering the Quater-final match between Argentina and Netherlands.
The charges of MEPs have already been triggered by international Human rights watchers and EU officials when they were trying to allow some Qatari officials to visit the bloc without visa permits.
Initially, Belgian police did not reveal the names of arrested officials. According to them, among those arrested officials, some were personal assistants, trade union bosses, and former members of the European Parliament. But in the evening a prominent name has come to the limelight which shocked the world, and the name is "Eva Kaili".
Who is Eva Kaili?
She is not an ordinary politician. She is a Greek politician and vocal supporter of Doha in Europe and in her own country. She is also the Vice-President of the European Parliament. Kaili was the EU's most powerful figure - Her superwoman status has been built upon her past carrier position being a television anchor for the Greek television channel MEGA channel. She is Brussel's most glamorous celebrity figure.
Kaili is a member of the "PASOK party", a center-left socialist democratic party in Greek. She supported Qatari Labour rights despite grave concerns raised by Labour and Human rights groups around the world. After the revelation of her corruption, she has been removed from her party. Along with her, her partner and co-parter, Francesco Giorgi, has also been detained, according to Police. He is the founding figure of the NGO called "Fight Impunity". He is also an adviser on the Middle East and North Africa region in the European Parliament.
Recently, he is not running Fight Impunity it is being run by Pier Antonio Panzeri who is the main culprit in the case. Panzeri, an ex-MEP and member of Italian S&D, along with his wife and daughter have been nabbed by Italian police on this case. He along with some other members was helping Qatar and Morocco to shine their image in the European environment.
Police are also investigating some other officials who were ever worked with Fight Impunity. Belgian S&D MEP Marie Arina is among them. As she was related to this NGO that's why the police sealed her office to gather further evidence in this matter. Although she personally has not yet been questioned by police despite her involvement being the subcommittee chairman of Human rights of the Fight Impunity.
Another NGO's name has flourished, named "No Peace Without Justice". According to Italian Newswire Ansa, Niccolò Figà-Talamanca has also been detained due to his involvement in this NGO being the director general of this organization.
The question is Why Qatar is aggressively investing its capital to build its image?
The answer to the question is very predictable and obvious. Qatar is hosting FIFA World Cup but the tournament has lost its glittering image due to the accusation of alleged bribing of FIFA officials and slavery-like situations for workers. They are adamant about not allowing women their legit rights along with rights to the LGBTQ+ community.
Qatar is a very rich country along with some other Gulf states, Saudi-Arabia, United Arab Emirates & Kuwait. This nation draws its power from petro-gas money which they earn by selling its natural gas to the world especially south Asian countries. Then they invest their money in rich countries especially the UK, France, Spain, and various others. They owe the PSG football club of France. Because of their diverse investment in Europe, the Qatari Royal family which is basically owed Qatar uses their power of money to influence European laws using these corrupt politicians. And these corrupt politicians hide their corruptible money under the guise of so-called Human rights NGOs, NGOs related to democracy & climate change, and they happily sell their accountability to these rich moguls for mere greed of wealth.
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