Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella failed to declare a trip paid for by Qatar, his lawyer admitted on Sunday, days after his colleague Marie Arena reported a similar “omission” regarding a trip to the emirate amid a corruption scandal in the European Parliament, AFP reported. .

After indicting four people on corruption charges in favor of Qatar, Belgian justice asked to lift the immunity of Marc Tarabella, a close associate of Pier Antonio Panzeri, the former Italian MEP who was at the center of the case, from whose house they seized €600,000 in cash.

Tarabella, whose home was also searched, denies any involvement, but the Socialist MEP admits he took the trip in February 2020, paid for by Qatar, without telling parliament as he was required to do.

“He was invited (…) to the congress. It was the organization that paid,” his lawyer Maxime Teller told the Belgian TV channel RTL. “He still hasn’t announced it (…). He then went to Ghana, then there was Covid (…). His employee reminds him about it, but the deadline has passed,” he explained, pointing to the “reality on the ground.”

“He puts things in order (…). There is nothing illegal in the fact that the organization pays for the trip,” the lawyer insisted, stressing that the elected official “went to see the construction of stadiums and asked to meet with the workers.”

In November, Mark Tarabella highlighted the “positive evolution” of rights in Qatar in the name of “real politics” and as “encouragement”, according to Maxim Teller.

The lawyer also tried to explain his client’s “friendship” with Pier Antonio Panzeri: “He is not a little Italian in a trattoria (…). He was elected as a member of the European Parliament three times, (he is) a very respected person (…). It is quite possible that he really advised (Mr. Tarabella) to say that,” and the latter “had no idea” that the Italian MEP would “pay for their friendship.”

Belgian Socialist MEP Marie Arena also admitted on Wednesday that she had not declared a trip to Qatar in May 2022 paid for by the emirate, blaming her secretariat for the “inaction” and citing a “quite complex closing document”, according to the report. his statements to the Belgian press.

She stepped down as president of the European Parliament’s human rights subcommittee, a post previously held by Pier Antonio Panzeri, from whom Arena resigned in December.

“This decision was taken in view of the political and media attacks affecting my image” and “the activities that are carried out inside the subcommittee,” she explained to the Belga agency, reiterating that she had “nothing to reproach” and that she was not the subject of any search or motion to waive her immunity.