The Belgian judge leading the investigation into the Qatargate corruption scandal at the European Parliament, Michel Claise, has stepped down due to allegations of a conflict of interest – which could delay or even stop the probe.
Claise's eldest son created a company in 2018 together with the son of MEP Marie Arena, whose name is also mentioned in the case. With five other investors, they co-founded in equal shares the company BRC & Co, specialising in the sale of CBD (an active ingredient in cannabis that is derived from the hemp plant).
"As a precautionary measure, and in order to allow justice to pursue its work in serenity and maintain the necessary separation between private and family life and professional responsibilities, the investigating judge Michel Claise has informed us that he has decided this evening to step down from the case," a statement by the Public Prosecutor's Office on Monday read.
Claise's decision comes "despite the absence of any real evidence to cast doubt on the probity of any of the parties involved, and the substantial work he and his investigators have accomplished in this case," the Prosecutor’s Office added.
'Conflict of interest since day one'
The judge resigned after a request for recusal filed Monday by the lawyer for MEP Marc Tarabella, a primary suspect in the case. Tarabella has consistently claimed his innocence and was recently released from wearing an electronic bracelet and allowed to leave house arrest under certain conditions.
His lawyer, Maxim Töller, alleged that Claise had been biased from the start of the investigation due to his ties with MEP Maria Arena. While the latter is mentioned in an arrest warrant as being part of a group of MEPs potentially involved in the Qatargate scandal, she has been neither questioned nor charged by prosecutors.
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"It is a conflict of interest that he had from day one of this investigation. It is shocking," Töller told Le Soir. "We had been asking for a confrontation between Mr Panzeri and my client for four months. This same Mr Panzeri who publicly defended (rightly or wrongly, that is not the question) Mrs Arena. One can legitimately wonder if the investigating judge refused to question Mr Panzeri's word."
Another investigating judge, Aurélie Dejaiffe, who already intervened several times in this case, will take over the direction of the investigation.
