Eva Kaili’s lawyers said Thursday after a pretrial hearing that the former European Parliament vice president is innocent — and pushed for her to be released from jail with an electronic tag.
Lawyers pressed the court for Kaili to wear an electronic bracelet instead of being sent back to jail, where she’s been for nearly two weeks after being arrested and charged in a sprawling probe into Qatar’s lobbying operation in Brussels that has ensnared a former MEP, a Parliament assistant and an NGO boss.
Speaking in front of a large press corps at the Palais de Justice in Brussels, one of Kaili’s lawyers — Brussels-based André Risopolous — said: “We have requested that Ms. Kaili be placed on electronic monitoring with a bracelet. She is actively participating in the investigation.”
He added: “She denies any corruption on her part, and you all know that I have decided not to communicate in this case because this investigation is being carried out by the judicial authorities and nowhere else.”
The court decision about the electronic tag will be made later Thursday.
Her Greek lawyer, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, speaking in hesitant French, said: “Ms. Eva Kaili is innocent. Never been corrupted, never,” before switching to English and adding: “Eva Kaili is innocent. The hearing is secret.”
When asked if Kaili knew about the hidden money — that is, the €150,000 that Belgian police found at her apartment — Dimitrakopoulos said: “No, never. Never corrupted.”
“The process is confidential. The decision will be made this afternoon. We have presented all our arguments. Ms. Kaili has never been bribed, Ms. Kaili is innocent,” Dimitrakopoulos added, before heading back inside the building on the damp Brussels morning.
The investigation has included widespread leaks to the press, which has pushed the Belgian federal prosecutor to open an investigation into the source of the leaks.
This prompted Risopolous to ask reporters not to seek “anything else,” while “the fate of Ms. Kaili is for the moment in the hands of the Belgian justice.”
Risopolous added that he had never seen such “violations” of the legal obligation to secrecy in the investigation.
“We will not make any other statement because it is prejudicial to the defense of Ms. Kaili and to the manifestation of the truth in a case of this nature,” Risopolous added.
Another suspect in the case, Niccolò Figà-Talamanca — secretary general of the NGO No Peace Without Justice — was put under electronic surveillance last week, but the federal prosecutor has appealed this decision and wants him locked up as well.
Nektaria Stamouli contributed reporting.