A new graft scandal rocked the European Parliament after police on Thursday carried out raids in Belgium and Portugal, detaining multiple suspects in a probe into suspicions of corruption under the guise of lobbying for the benefit of Chinese tech giant Huawei.
The new investigation comes more than two years after the “Qatargate” scandal, in which a number of EU lawmakers were accused of being paid to promote the interests of Qatar and Morocco — something both countries have firmly denied.
None of those held for questioning on Thursday were EU lawmakers, a police source said. However, Belgian media reported more than a dozen parliamentarians were on the detectives’ radar.
Photo: AP
Transparency campaigners, who have accused EU lawmakers of resisting reform, called on the parliament to immediately investigate the latest claims.
“The alleged bribery is said to have benefitted Huawei,” the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said after local media reported the probe focused on the company.
Huawei said it took the allegations “seriously” and would “urgently communicate with the investigation to further understand the situation.”
“Huawei has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times,” it said in a statement yesterday.
The Belgian prosecutor’s office earlier said several people were taken in for questioning over their “alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries.”
The investigating judge ordered seals on the European Parliament offices of two parliamentary assistants and a suspect had been arrested in France, it added in a second statement on Thursday afternoon.
The EU parliament said it had received a request for cooperation from the Belgian authorities and would “swiftly and fully honor” it.
Prosecutors said the alleged corruption by a “criminal organization” was “practiced regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day” and took “various forms.”
These included “remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches” as part of a bid to promote “purely private commercial interests” in political decisions.
The alleged kickbacks were concealed as conference expenses and paid to various intermediaries, the office said, adding it was looking at whether money laundering had also been involved.
About 100 police officers took part in the operation, which included a total of 21 searches conducted across Belgium and in Portugal, it added.
Belgium’s Le Soir daily said the Portuguese search focused on a company through which transfers had allegedly been made to one or more EU lawmakers.
Portugal’s prosecutor general confirmed the raids were conducted “at the request of the Belgian authorities,” but did not provide more details.
At the heart of the alleged corruption is a former parliamentary assistant who was employed as Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Belgian media said.
Huawei has been in the EU’s crosshairs in recent years.
Brussels in 2023 described the telecoms giant as a higher risk to the bloc than other 5G suppliers and called on EU states to exclude its equipment from their mobile networks.
Le Soir said police had taken “several lobbyists” into custody and they were due to appear in front of a judge for questioning.
Transparency defenders were scathing in their criticism of the parliament’s lack of wide-ranging reforms after the 2022 scandal.
“These new allegations are as sweeping and serious as Qatargate and make a mockery of democracy at the European Parliament. For too long, MEPs have taken a carefree approach to ethics and continue to exist in a culture of impunity,” Transparency International EU director Nicholas Aiossa said.
He urged swift and deep reform in the parliament, a call echoed by former transparency campaigner and current Green EU lawmaker, Daniel Freund.
“This painfully shows that following Qatargate the EU remains vulnerable to corruption. Some reforms are still being blocked,” Freund said, adding: “We finally need independent oversight for ethics violations.”
‘EYE FOR AN EYE’: Two of the men were shot by a male relative of the victims, whose families turned down the opportunity to offer them amnesty, the Supreme Court said Four men were yesterday publicly executed in Afghanistan, the Supreme Court said, the highest number of executions to be carried out in one day since the Taliban’s return to power. The executions in three separate provinces brought to 10 the number of men publicly put to death since 2021, according to an Agence France-Presse tally. Public executions were common during the Taliban’s first rule from 1996 to 2001, with most of them carried out publicly in sports stadiums. Two men were shot around six or seven times by a male relative of the victims in front of spectators in Qala-i-Naw, the center
Incumbent Ecuadoran President Daniel Noboa on Sunday claimed a runaway victory in the nation’s presidential election, after voters endorsed the young leader’s “iron fist” approach to rampant cartel violence. With more than 90 percent of the votes counted, the National Election Council said Noboa had an unassailable 12-point lead over his leftist rival Luisa Gonzalez. Official results showed Noboa with 56 percent of the vote, against Gonzalez’s 44 percent — a far bigger winning margin than expected after a virtual tie in the first round. Speaking to jubilant supporters in his hometown of Olon, the 37-year-old president claimed a “historic victory.” “A huge hug
The US will help bolster the Philippines’ arsenal and step up joint military exercises, Manila’s defense chief said, as tensions between Washington and China escalate. The longtime US ally is expecting a sustained US$500 million in annual defense funding from Washington through 2029 to boost its military capabilities and deter China’s “aggression” in the region, Philippine Secretary of Defense Gilberto Teodoro said in an interview in Manila on Thursday. “It is a no-brainer for anybody, because of the aggressive behavior of China,” Teodoro said on close military ties with the US under President Donald Trump. “The efforts for deterrence, for joint resilience
Two Belgian teenagers on Tuesday were charged with wildlife piracy after they were found with thousands of ants packed in test tubes in what Kenyan authorities said was part of a trend in trafficking smaller and lesser-known species. Lornoy David and Seppe Lodewijckx, two 19-year-olds who were arrested on April 5 with 5,000 ants at a guest house, appeared distraught during their appearance before a magistrate in Nairobi and were comforted in the courtroom by relatives. They told the magistrate that they were collecting the ants for fun and did not know that it was illegal. In a separate criminal case, Kenyan Dennis
RSS