BRUSSELS (Reuters) -Eight people have been charged with corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organisation following a probe into suspected bribery at the European Parliament, Belgium’s public prosecutor said in a statement on Friday.
The charges come after Belgian prosecutors said on March 13 they had detained several individuals over suspected bribery in the European Parliament allegedly for the benefit of China’s Huawei.
On March 13, Belgian investigators raided 21 premises across Belgium and in Portugal and a judge has since requested that the offices of two parliamentary assistants be sealed.
The Belgian prosecutors said the alleged corruption had taken place “very discreetly” since 2021 under the guise of commercial lobbying and involved payments for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches.
Prosecutors have said the alleged bribery is said to have benefited Huawei.
Huawei has said it takes the allegations seriously and would urgently communicate with authorities to fully understand the situation. It has also said it has a zero tolerance policy towards corruption or other wrongdoing.
The prosecutor’s office said on Friday that among the eight people charged, three were being kept under electronic surveillance, two have been released and three remain under arrest.
It gave no further information.
The European Parliament has said it had received a request from Belgian authorities to assist with the investigation, and that it would swiftly and full comply with it.
At the end of 2022, the EU was rocked by the ‘Qatargate’ cash-for-influence scandal after Belgian authorities charged four people linked to the European Parliament on suspicions that Qatar and Morocco bribed politicians, parliamentary assistants and non-governmental organisations to influence decision-making in the EU assembly.
That investigation is still ongoing.
(Reporting by Geert De Clercq; Editing by Sudip Kar-Gupta)
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