The police had been waiting since dawn. Officers from the special unit of Belgium’s federal police gathered on Rue Wiertz, close to the European parliament in Brussels. The parliament, which likes to style itself the house of European democracy, had been at the centre of a months-long, top-secret investigation. Investigators believed a Gulf country – unofficially confirmed as Qatar – was trying to sway decisions at the assembly, using vast sums of cash and lavish gifts. Now they were about to arrest the man they thought was at the centre of the criminal conspiracy.
He was Francesco Giorgi, an assistant at the parliament. Charismatic and well-connected, the young Italian lived with his partner, Eva Kaili, a Greek MEP, who had enjoyed a meteoric rise to become one of the parliament’s 14 vice-presidents since her election in 2014. As soon as Giorgi left the building, police surrounded him. His interrogation – and seizure of his phone – was deemed crucial to the investigation, according to Le Soir, which recounted the details of his morning arrest. By lunchtime last Friday, police had searched 16 properties in Brussels, arrested five others including Kaili, seized laptops, phones and hundreds of thousands of euros in cash. Two people were later released without charge.
