A new graft scandal rocked the European Parliament after police on Thursday carried out raids in Belgium and Portugal, detaining multiple suspects in a probe into suspicions of corruption under the guise of lobbying for the benefit of Chinese tech giant Huawei.
The new investigation comes more than two years after the “Qatargate” scandal, in which a number of EU lawmakers were accused of being paid to promote the interests of Qatar and Morocco — something both countries have firmly denied.
None of those held for questioning on Thursday were EU lawmakers, a police source said. However, Belgian media reported more than a dozen parliamentarians were on the detectives’ radar.
Photo: AP
Transparency campaigners, who have accused EU lawmakers of resisting reform, called on the parliament to immediately investigate the latest claims.
“The alleged bribery is said to have benefitted Huawei,” the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office said after local media reported the probe focused on the company.
Huawei said it took the allegations “seriously” and would “urgently communicate with the investigation to further understand the situation.”
“Huawei has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing, and we are committed to complying with all applicable laws and regulations at all times,” it said in a statement yesterday.
The Belgian prosecutor’s office earlier said several people were taken in for questioning over their “alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries.”
The investigating judge ordered seals on the European Parliament offices of two parliamentary assistants and a suspect had been arrested in France, it added in a second statement on Thursday afternoon.
The EU parliament said it had received a request for cooperation from the Belgian authorities and would “swiftly and fully honor” it.
Prosecutors said the alleged corruption by a “criminal organization” was “practiced regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day” and took “various forms.”
These included “remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches” as part of a bid to promote “purely private commercial interests” in political decisions.
The alleged kickbacks were concealed as conference expenses and paid to various intermediaries, the office said, adding it was looking at whether money laundering had also been involved.
About 100 police officers took part in the operation, which included a total of 21 searches conducted across Belgium and in Portugal, it added.
Belgium’s Le Soir daily said the Portuguese search focused on a company through which transfers had allegedly been made to one or more EU lawmakers.
Portugal’s prosecutor general confirmed the raids were conducted “at the request of the Belgian authorities,” but did not provide more details.
At the heart of the alleged corruption is a former parliamentary assistant who was employed as Huawei’s EU public affairs director, Belgian media said.
Huawei has been in the EU’s crosshairs in recent years.
Brussels in 2023 described the telecoms giant as a higher risk to the bloc than other 5G suppliers and called on EU states to exclude its equipment from their mobile networks.
Le Soir said police had taken “several lobbyists” into custody and they were due to appear in front of a judge for questioning.
Transparency defenders were scathing in their criticism of the parliament’s lack of wide-ranging reforms after the 2022 scandal.
“These new allegations are as sweeping and serious as Qatargate and make a mockery of democracy at the European Parliament. For too long, MEPs have taken a carefree approach to ethics and continue to exist in a culture of impunity,” Transparency International EU director Nicholas Aiossa said.
He urged swift and deep reform in the parliament, a call echoed by former transparency campaigner and current Green EU lawmaker, Daniel Freund.
“This painfully shows that following Qatargate the EU remains vulnerable to corruption. Some reforms are still being blocked,” Freund said, adding: “We finally need independent oversight for ethics violations.”
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Jailed media entrepreneur Jimmy Lai (黎智英) has been awarded Deutsche Welle’s (DW) freedom of speech award for his contribution to Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement. The German public broadcaster on Thursday said Lai would be presented in absentia with the 12th iteration of the award on June 23 at the DW Global Media Forum in Bonn. Deutsche Welle director-general Barbara Massing praised the 78-year-old founder of the now-shuttered news outlet Apple Daily for standing “unwaveringly for press freedom in Hong Kong at great personal risk.” “With Apple Daily, he gave journalists a platform for free reporting and a voice to the democracy movement in
PHILIPPINE COMMITTEE: The head of the committee that made the decision said: ‘If there is nothing to hide, there is no reason to hide, there is no reason to obstruct’ A Philippine congressional committee on Wednesday ruled that there was “probable cause” to impeach Philippine Vice President Sara Duterte after hearing allegations of unexplained wealth, misuse of state funds and threats to have the president assassinated. The unanimous decision of the 53-member committee in the Philippine House of Representatives sends the two impeachment complaints to deliberations and voting by the entire lower chamber, which has more than 300 lawmakers. The complaints centered on Duterte’s alleged illegal use and mishandling of intelligence funds from the vice president’s office, and from her time as education secretary under Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. Duterte and the
As evening falls in Fiji’s capital, a steady stream of people approaches a makeshift clinic that is a first line of defense against one of the world’s fastest-growing HIV epidemics. In the South Pacific nation — a popular tourist destination of just under a million people — more than 2,000 new HIV cases were recorded last year, a 26 percent increase from 2024. The government has declared an HIV outbreak and described it as a national crisis. “It’s spreading like wildfire,” said Siteri Dinawai, 46, who came to be tested. The Moonlight Clinic, a converted minibus parked in a suburban cul-de-sac in Suva, is
RSS