Belgian MEP Marie Arena (PS) has been questioned as part of the so-called 'Qatargate' investigation into suspected corruption in the European Parliament, she said in an interview with La Libre Belgique on Saturday.
Arena said she is accused of having participated in the activities of a criminal organisation. Her name has been dropped several times in the investigation. After several interrogations by the police, she asked to be heard by the investigating judge.
"I was finally heard. I am not accused of corruption. I am not accused of money laundering. I am charged only because I am a member of a ‘criminal organisation’," she explained. "I am accused of a pseudo-crime to cover up two years of negligence by the judiciary, after two years of lynching by the judiciary and the media."
"I have not been given any evidence, not even clues to justify that accusation," Arena said."In reality, nothing can be blamed on me. The investigating judge has established that I was not corrupt, that I was not laundering money in an affair that is entirely about that."
She said that she has only been charged because she "knows people who have been charged for acts of corruption." However, to be linked to a criminal organisation, you have to have knowledge of criminal activities "and I swear that was totally unthinkable for me."
Arena stressed that she did not receive any gifts either. "I received neither a watch nor any jewellery. Nothing, never."
