Belgian Socialist MEP Marie Arena has again proclaimed her innocence in the Qatargate case, in which EU officials – several of them Belgian – are under investigation by the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office into alleged corruption.
In a rare interview with La Libre Belgique, Le Soir and Le Monde on Monday, Arena insisted on her innocence and said she knew nothing about the €280,000 cash that police found in her son's home (adjacent to hers) when investigators carried out searches in July of her home and those of her entourage.
"I spoke out at the beginning of the affair and explained that I had nothing to do with it. Ten months later, I’m coming with the same thing: I had nothing to do with this case," explained the Socialist, adding that the long-refused interview was to "set the record straight" for the "thousands of people who voted for me."
The MEP sought to distance herself from her son, quipping that he is "of age and vaccinated."
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On the topic of Italian former MEP Antonio Panzeri, who was a close friend of Arena but has maintained that she was not involved, Arena adds: "Panzeri is no longer my friend... I hope never to see him again in my life. And I’ll hold a grudge against him for the rest of my life."
The interview took place in the presence of Arena’s lawyer, Michèle Hirsch, who stressed that the courts are not implicating Marie Arena: "Since the beginning of this case, she has not been questioned, not even as a witness. She has not been charged. She has not been deprived of her liberty. No request has been made to lift her parliamentary immunity."
