Five MEPs targeted by prosecutors in the Huawei file. How to defend themselves in front of requests to lift parliamentary immunity
Belgian prosecutors have asked the European Parliament to raise the immunity of five MEPs in a corruption file that involves the Chinese technological giant Huawei, the institution president announced on Wednesday, according to AFP.
Most of the concerned have denied any illegal deed, and one of the people claims that he was the victim of a “identity” confusion.
The President of the European Parliament, Roberta Metsola, named the five MEPs in question: Socialist Maltese Daniel Attard, Bulgarian centricist Nikola Minchev, and central-right Italians Salvatore de Meo, Giusi Prince and Fulvio Martusciello.
The requests will be evaluated by the Parliamentary Commission for Legal Affairs, Metsola said in a plenary session in Brussels.
The corruption scandal, the second that shakes the European Parliament in recent years, broke out in March, after a series of police descriptions in locations in Belgium and Portugal. Investigators suspect that Huawei lobbyists offer gifts for MEPs who then defend the company's interests in Brussels.
For the moment, eight people have been charged, including for the alleged committing of crimes such as corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization. However, prosecutors revealed to the public few details about the case and the evidence in the file.
How MEPs have defended targeted
Some of the MEPs involved challenged the reasons invoked by prosecutors in the request to raise immunity, and one of them accused the Belgian authorities of excess power.
Giusi Prince claims that she is unfairly accused of attending a meeting in June 2024, as that day was in fact in Italy for the “year -end play of her daughter”.
“I trust that this obvious identity mistake will be clarified as soon as possible,” the Italian MEP on Wednesday.
De Meo was declared “surprised” of the “unfounded” request of the prosecutors, which refers to his participation in a “convivial meeting” for drinks and dinner attended by Huawei representatives.
“I have never taken a position in favor of Huawei,” says the MEP. “If we consider that participating in an informal meeting is a sufficient reason to initiate a legal action, this would seriously limit our parliamentary activities,” he added.
Minchev and Attard claim that they are targeted by investigators because they were invited to the football matches of the Anderlecht in Brussels through their assistants.
Attard said that his assistant asked “to join him and his son to what was to be a private and informal event”, but later he came to light that the invitation came from a person currently under the investigation “who intended to talk to me about Huawei during the match.”
“I had no previous acquaintance about this and I had no previous contact with that person,” he wrote on social networks.
Similarly, Minchev said that his former assistant, currently concerned by the investigation, told him that “his friend and neighbor invites us” on the stadium as part of a family birthday-but also in this case, the organizer has proven to be among those investigated by Belgian prosecutors.
By Meo, Minchev and Attard claim they are ready to cooperate with the authorities.
Martusciello did not respond at the time of AFP request to comment on the situation.
Previously, Huawei had stated that he had charges of corruption “seriously” and has “a zero tolerance policy.”
The investigation takes place two years after the “Qatatgate” scandal, in which members of the European Parliament were accused of being paid to promote the interests of Qatar and Morocco, accusations that both countries denies.
