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Dear reader,

 

This is our weekly round-up from Greece,

 

European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili, PASOK-KINAL MEP, is at the epicenter of the probably biggest scandal that has ever rocked Brussels. In a development bearing all characteristics of a Hollywood movie, she was caught in the act with bags of cash. Allegedly bribes her and three alleged associates from Qatar, so they polish the image of the autocratic state.

 

We connect the dots in an analysis you would not read in the international press. How is Kaili closely connected with ND, despite being a KINAL MEP? How far back does her relationship with ND high profile people and corrupt politicians date? Why did she try to undermine the importance of the Greek spyware scandal?

 

In a separate yet tragic development, the 16-year-old Roma boy who had been shot in the head by the police died. Protests erupted, followed by clashes with the police. On the day of his death, all parliamentary parties except DiEM25 voted for a 600 euros bonus for all uniformed in the Police and the Coast Guard.   

  
 

 

Beware of Greeks receiving gifts.

 

It’s probably the biggest scandal that has ever rocked the European Union. Former European Parliament Vice President Eva Kaili was caught in the act by Belgian authorities who seized bags of cash in her house. 

 

PASOK-KINAL MEP Kaili is now one of four people in detention, including her partner Francesco Giorgi, charged by Belgian prosecutors with "participation in a criminal organization, money laundering, and corruption." Kaili has been accused of bribes said to have been paid by World Cup host Qatar to burnish its image and influence EU policy. Gleaming speeches about the Gulf state in the European Parliament, voting in favor of files related to Qatar in committees on which she didn't sit, and attending numerous unregistered events in the country. Are the alleged links between Kaili and Doha,” it is reported

 

Kaili has already been booted out of her political parties and affiliations and stripped of her vice presidency.

 

Belgian prosecutors said 600,000 euros were found at the home of one suspect, 150,000 euros at the flat of an MEP, and several hundred thousand euros in a suitcase in a hotel room.

 

The Mission of Qatar to the EU has called the allegations "baseless and gravely misinformed."

 

Several offices of parliamentary assistants have been sealed as part of the ongoing investigation. Belgian police have also frozen IT resources from parliament employees to prevent the disappearance of key data.

 

The European Chief Prosecutor, Laura Codruța Kövesi, requested on Thursday the lifting of immunity of  Eva Kaili - along with that of another Greek MEP, ND’s Maria Spyraki, over suspicions of committing fraud.

 

Spyraki’s case is not linked to the ‘Qatar Gate.’ "Based on an investigative report received from the European Anti-Fraud Office (OLAF), there is a suspicion of fraud detrimental to the EU budget, in relation to the management of the parliamentary allowance, and in particular concerning the remuneration of Accredited Parliamentary Assistants," the prosecutor said in a short statement in relation to Spyraki

 

The Economic Prosecutor’s Office in Greece ordered a preliminary criminal investigation against Kaili with the aim of investigating whether the crimes of bribing a political person and money laundering or any other ex officio prosecuted crime have been committed.

 

The head of Greece’s Anti-Money Laundering Authority, Charalambos Vourliotis, has ordered a freeze on the property and financial assets in Greece of Kaili and those associated with her.

 

The Greek authority against money laundering announced on Monday that it has traced a real estate firm based in the central Athens district of Kolonaki to jailed MEP Eva Kaili and her partner. The company, set up one month ago and involved in the trade and exploitation of property, has been frozen, and its activities are being investigated.

 

“I won’t become an Iphigenia,” Kaili stated through her lawyer in Greece, Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, a direct reference to mythological King Agamemnon’s daughter who was sacrificed to appease the Gods. Hence, they release a fair wind for the fleet, as Agamemnon had previously offended the goddess Artemis, and the ships could not set sail for Troja.

 

Her lawyer reiterates that Kaili is innocent; she was unaware of the money in her home meant for a third [unknown] person.

 

The narrative goes like this, her partner ‘stored’ the bags with cash.  When she discovered the money, she told her partner to remove it, he called her father, but the police quickly caught them in the act.


 

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‘Ifigenia’ or ‘Trojan Horse’?

 

Kaili was an MEP with the PASOK-KINAL party, but she has been considered by many as ND’s ‘Trojan Horse.’ KINAL leader Androulakis in his recent statements, openly characterized her as such. 

 

Androulakis just tries to shake off responsibility and the shame from his party. He is responsible for not ousting her earlier from KINAL if things are true, as he suggests. He claimed he did not do it earlier as he did not wish to be perceived as intervening with the PEGA Committee investigation on the spyware scandal “as Mrs. Kaili was shadow rapporteur for Eurosocialists group.” 

 

But why did Androulakis make such a claim? There have been quite a few reports before the recent scandal, according to which Kaili “was with one foot in New Democracy.” ND people were implying she might officially join the party soon.

 

In January 2022, Prime Minister Mitsotakis ordered ND MEPs to vote for Eva Kaili as European Parliament’s Vice President. It is reported that the decision followed a meeting in Brussels under the PM and with the participation of ND International Relations secretary Tassos Hatzivasiliou. It was also reported that “the PM gave a fight for her to be elected Vice President as he spoke to EPP officials on the matter.”

 

As a result, on 18 January 2022, Kaili was elected Vice-President from the first round with 454 votes. 

 

There is more. Back in May 2014, it was reported that then ND Health Minister (now Development Minister) Georgiadis had appointed Kaili’s father Alexandros, reportedly a mechanic, as Hospital Papageorgiou Board President. Kaili later claimed her father had been appointed just as a member of the Board. 

 

Kaili’s father, who was caught now with bags full of cash in Brussels, also appears to be connected with an older big scandal in the Greek city of Thessaloniki. According to a Thessaloniki local press report, Alexandros Kailis was a key person in the Psomiadis brothers’ case, who is accused as responsible for 1.2 million euros of ex-Prefecture Central Macedonia projects being paid for but never realized. Ex-Prefecture head Panagiotis Psomiadis had been elected the office with ND. The case is still in the courts. 

 

“The course of the investigation on the European Parliament Vice president’s actions is a cause of stress for New Democracy. Because who knows what can come up and which people may be detected as implicated,” a report on well-informed News247 concluded.  

 

Interestingly, in September, Kaili chose to vote for center-right Alessandro Chiocchetti for European Parliament’s General Secretary, breaking her party lines and causing the outrage of Parliament’s Socialist Group. Chiocchetti had been a European People’s Party candidate.   

 

It is also interesting how Kaili is associated with the wiretapping scandal. “Though Kaili was reportedly one of the politicians under Greek state surveillance, she said the parliamentary committee she was part of should not visit Greece as part of its investigation into spyware,” Politico reported. Kaili was reported as stating that the Committee should first visit the countries that admitted having the spyware and that if a country claims it does not use it, no investigation can occur.   

 

It’s also worth mentioning reports in Greek mainstream (see ‘goverment-affiliated’) media highlight the Belgian prosecutor’s phrase “it’s impossible to fight crime without wiretapping” in an apparent effort to justify the Greek wiretapping scandal. Only in the ‘Qatar Gate’ case the Belgian authorities might have wiretapped some suspects allegedly implicated in the scandal. In Greece, they wiretapped those investigating scandals, like journalist Koukakis. Plus, MEP Kaili was not wiretapped as she was protected by Parliamentary immunity.  

 

We shall add that resigned ex-PM’s General Secretary Dimitriadis, closely connected with the wiretapping scandal, had posted when Kaili was elected Vice President: “A young woman and excellent friend who stars in European developments, is since yesterday European Parliament Vice President. Congratulations!” 

 

Then, there is another strange coincidence. 

 

In a previous newsletter, we covered the case of ND MP Andreas Patsis, who took a 4.3 million euros loan from a bank to buy -from the same bank- bad loans worth some 63 million euros. That is, he bought them at 1/15 of their value. While an MP, he had also secured contracts without a bid with the Greek Postal Service ELTA for providing ‘legal advice,’ which brought him some 1 million euros within a year. The MP also admitted he has off-shore companies, which the law forbids MPs. 

 

Why did we suddenly remember Patsis again? 

 

Well, as it is reported, until recently, he appeared as the president of the Parliamentary Group of Friendship between Greece and Qatar. After the scandal above broke out, Patsis seems to have been substituted in the group by ND MP Fotini Arabatzi. 

 

This connection does not prove some wrongdoing. Keep it in mind, though. You never know.
 


A 16-year-old boy shot by police died.

 

16-year-old boy Kostas Fragoulis, a Roma, shot in the head by a police officer on December 5, died on Tuesday morning, Ippokratio General Hospital in Thessaloniki announced.

 

For nine days, the victim, also a teenage father of a baby, was struggling for life in the ICU. The hospital administration had not issued a medical press release till the day of his death.

 

The bullet had reportedly struck him in the lower left side of the head, damaging brain parts.

 

Riots broke out in several parts of Greece. However, meetings between Roma leaders and police unionists in Thessaloniki managed to diffuse the tension.

 

Thousands marched to protest the murder. They were carrying banners with slogans such as “16-year-old dead for 20 euros of petrol”  and were shouting “Murderers.” There were clashes with riot police, stones, sticks, molotov cocktail bombs, flash bangs, and teargas.

 

More than 1,500 mourners gathered in a Roma settlement in northern Greece on Thursday for the funeral of the teenager. “Today, all of society must be united. Today we are all Roma,” said Theofilos Alexopoulos, the family’s lawyer.

 

The accused 34-year-old police officer was released under house arrest last week after the prosecutor and the examining magistrate could not agree upon remand custody. After the boy’s death, the charges are expected to change. 

 

In a thrilling development, on the day the 16-year-old died, the Greek Parliament approved with the great majority a 600 euros bonus to all in the Police and the Coast Guard. It was not only ND but also the main opposition SYRIZA, Communist Party KKE, and far-right Greek Solution that voted in favor of the one-off allowance. DiEM25 was the only party that voted against it.

 

“I believe it is the least we can do to show the State’s gratitude,” PM Mitsotakis stated. 

 

The bonus had been announced on the day the police shot the boy.    

 
 

Read

 

EXCLUSIVE: Another MEP and journalist, the latest victims of ‘Greek Watergate’: The independent authority faced difficulties in carrying out the audit control. Greece’s Prosecutor of the Supreme Court allegedly attempted to block the control saying it was illegal, EURACTIV has learned.

 

Qatar ‘ghost’ vote exposes MEP Eva Kaili

 

Pope returns Greece’s Parthenon Sculptures in an ecumenical nod

 

The long rise and abrupt fall of Greek MEP Eva Kaili

 

Better late than never: Wiretapping Predator - Authorities raid six companies connected to spyware months after the scandal broke out

 

Erdogan threatens to strike Greece with missiles.

 

Al-Sisi demarcates Egypt’s maritime border with Libya.

 

FM Dendias: “Greece will never cease to claim German WWII reparations.”

 

Envelope with blood at the Embassy of Ukraine in Athens

 

Greece’s Migration Minister as Christmas tree ball

 

A 17-year-old girl stabs to death her partner in north Athens



The Island of Alonissos decorates an underwater Christmas Tree (video)
 


 

 


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