Qatar-gate: The suite, the “inflated” briefcase and Mauritania – Newsbomb – News

New revelations about the so-called Qatar Gate, the scandal that shakes the common European edifice, are brought to light by Italian newspaper “Il Fatto Quotidiano”citing, among other things, the testimony of Fradesco Giorgi, Eva Kaili’s partner who allegedly played a key role in the “carousel” of corruption within the European Parliament.

The former aide to the organization’s alleged mastermind, Pierre Antonio Pancheri, described the “Qatar plan” to prosecutors and revealed that there was a third country that allegedly bought favorable treatment, Mauritania.” Mauritania’s role also appears in the Brussels investigation into the funds paid by certain foreign countries to obtain favorable treatment from the European Parliament. The scandal, now abbreviated as Qatargate, after the main nation involved, but attention is reportedly now turning to other countries as well.

According to the Il Fatto Quotidiano article, he said: there was also agreement with Mauritania, similar to that with Qatar and Morocco, “I rented my apartment to the ambassador and it amounted to: 1,500 euros plus 300 euros expenses. Pancheri took 25 thousand in cash. Even in Mauritania they have a problem with their image. They hired Pancheri to get advice on what to do. We went to the Mauritanian embassy a week ago and met their ambassador and the Saudi who wanted information about what is being said in their country’s parliament.”

The relationship with Qatar and the “Algerine”

The problem was obviously not the advice on how to manage the image of the African country, but the possible interference with the institutions and the fact that everything was done in the shadows. The relationship with Qatar was broader, as well tried to minimize the impact of the accusations for the violation of workers’ rights and the deaths during the construction of the stadiums. Giorgi also mentioned a mysterious middleman in this story who worked for the Qatari government, nicknamed “The Algerian”.

It was he who proposed, in 2019, the creation of an NGO to have a seemingly clean mechanism available to these maneuvers and money transfers. It’s about Fight Impunity, sponsored by the Human Right Foundation. The right contact came from the man everyone simply called “the Algerian”.

“He is someone who works for the government of Qatar and his name is Boudjellal. He put me in touch with a person in Turkey, I believe of Palestinian origin.” He gave him a Belgian phone number: “I had to call him to get the money.”

The appointment in a luxury hotel

Fatto Quotidiano’s website also reveals a film-like meeting on October 10 between Panzeri, Giorgi and a Qatari delegation in Brussels, which was attended by Qatar’s labor minister. The meeting reportedly took place at the Steigenberger Wiltcher’s Hotel which is famous in Belgium for its wealthy clients as several times Rolls Royce, Jaguar and Ferrari are parked outside it.

One day before the meeting, the delegation from Doha headed by the Minister of Labor of Qatar, Ali bin Samih al Marri, had stopped at the said hotel. The Qatari team, which had booked the 4th floor suitehad arrived in Brussels with the aim of a crucial hearing of the labor minister by the European Parliament’s Human Rights subcommittee to answer about the respect of human rights in the context of preparations for the World Cup.

“Al Marri wanted to prepare for this hearing which would take place 30 days after his arrival in Brussels and that is why he relied on two tips: Francesco Giorgi and Antonio Panzeri» says the Italian website. This duo, according to the publication, appeared at the hotel 24 hours after the arrival of the Qataris. “It was 6 o’clock in the afternoon on October 10 when Pancheri and Giorgi passed the hotel entrance. The first was holding a thin briefcase while the second was pushing a stroller in which there was a child, most likely the child he had with Eva Kaili,” the publication describes the beginning of the controversial meeting.

The arrival of two of the protagonists of the scandal, as well as what followed, is, according to the publication, recorded by security cameras, and this material led the investigators to characterize it as “key” to the investigation concerning Qatargate. As claimed in the report, some of the members of the delegation from Doha appear to have known the two Italians. One of them even had one “special intimacy with Giorgi”.

The “bloated envelope”

“The team in the lobby met a Qatari man wearing white pants. The four of them entered the elevator. It was 6pm and the cameras were focusing on the floor where the Qataris lived. A man appeared in the hallway who was part of the delegation from Doha pushing a rather large suitcase. Half an hour later, Giorgi leaves the room pushing the cart and appears in the hotel lobby greeted by a person from a distance. This is a woman whom the researchers describe as an “acquaintance” of Giorgi’s as she “points to the child from afar”.

A few minutes later Tiorji returns alone to the fourth floor. An hour later the two Italians and the man in the white pants leave the suite. The watching police officers noticed that Pancheri’s briefcase “was more bloated than when he arrived (at the hotel)” and attached the relevant photo. In front of the elevator the man with the big suitcase hugs Giorgi and returns to the suite.’

What exactly happened in the 1.5-hour meeting remains unknown. All that has been confirmed so far from Giorgi’s statements in the interrogation after his arrest was that they met with Qatar’s labor minister. “We met with Pancheri, the Algerian and the Minister of Labor who was in an official meeting” Eva Kaili’s partner is said to have said during the interrogation.

This was not the only meeting of the Qataris with Pancheri as Giorgi, as the article concludes, has spoken of two other meetings at the home of the alleged Qatar-gate “mastermind” involving Qatar’s labor minister and in which Eva Kaili’s partner reportedly says he was “present” to act as translator “since despite 18 years in Brussels, Pancheri does not know English».