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Panzeri: The Visit of Tindouf to Ward off Suspicion

Tags: Morocco, Algeria, Western Sahara, European Parliament, Qatargate, corruption, Antonio Panzeri, Eva Kaili, Francesco Giorgi,

All links between Panzeri and Morocco. A story that has lasted 11 years โ€“ Corriere. it โ€“.

For at least eleven years, Morocco has considered Antonio Panzeri an important and precious friend. Consolidated during his two terms in the European Parliament, contacts have continued even more intensely since 2019, when Panzeri founded the NGO Fight Impunity. A bond that over time has become too close, like the one that exists with the State of Qatar. Both sent Panzeri and others to jail, accused of collecting money and laundering it as part of a criminal conspiracy to bribe and money launder that was intended to condition the political choices of parliament to the interests of the two States.

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An investigation by Le Soir and Knack newspapers reconstructs the relationship with Morocco from the moment Chris Coleman, a hacker with an Anglo-Saxon name but a Moroccan identity, posted a series of confidential documents from Rabat online between 2014 and 2015. These include an October 2011 diplomatic note sent from Brussels, in which a contact allegedly took place between a representative of the Moroccan mission to the EU and the former Italian MEP. It was reported that during an informal meeting on the sidelines of a plenary session of Parliament in Strasbourg, Panzeri’s “advisor” had brought a message to send to the “Moroccan authorities”.

It was perhaps a completely normal step in the context of the work of a parliamentary assistant, as it is true that the note was intended to prepare for the visit that Mr. Panzeri, then president of the Maghreb Commission of the Parliament. But there is more, the Moroccans took care not to embarrass the parliamentarian of the time who, perhaps by choice, had to stop in an area where there were Sahrawi refugee camps before being transferred to Rabat: “The visit to Tindouf is fundamental to strengthen Panzeri’s credibility with Algeria and the Polisario” (the movement active in Western Sahara) who otherwise would have considered him too pro-Moroccan, explains the document.

In another note, dated 2013, the same diplomatic mission to the EU announced a plan to counter Morocco’s opponents in Parliament with conferences, debates, and visits by coordinating its “action with the president of the Maghreb delegation in the EP, Antonio Panzeri, a close friend of Morocco”. Since 2019, the complaints have moved from the offices of Parliament to those of Fight Impunity and, at least according to Belgian justice, from January 1, 2021, they will become a criminal case. Panzeri, indeed, would have had too many relations with the Moroccan ambassador in Poland, Abderrahim Atmoun, a character who frequented a study center in Brussels in the shadow of which the secret services of Rabat would have operated.

Panzeri, his wife, and daughter also intended to transfer some gifts they received to Morocco through the diplomat. The investigations of the federal prosecutor’s office mention several meetings between the two men and recent trips made by Panzeri to Morocco. Suspicious acquaintances have also been recorded between Atmoun and PDP MEP (now resigned from the group) Andrea Cozzolino. Then there is the thread of ties with Qatar, which go back, however, to much more recent times. The magistrates are indeed focusing on a trip made by Panzeri to the Gulf country in early November. Here too, according to the prosecution, the aim was to obtain a favorable policy in the country.

On Monday, Panzeri’s wife and daughter, arrested in the province of Bergamo at the request of Brussels investigators, will appear before the Brescia Court of Appeal, which will have to decide on their possible transfer to Belgium. At the same time, the investigations carried out in Italy on the assets of the Panzeri family – but also on the accounts of the Italians directly involved, such as Francesco Giorgi, the companion of the former vice-president of the European Parliament Eva Kaili – have already made it possible to identify โ€œenormousโ€ sums. In their request for the surrender of the two women to Belgium, the Brussels magistrates also ask to hear witnesses and identify all the documents useful to the investigation as well as other people involved “in this fraudulent organization”.

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