2023-06-19 19:00:00
“Elements which might raise certain questions as to the objective functioning of the investigation have recently emerged,” the federal prosecutor’s office said in a statement. “As a precautionary measure and in order to allow Justice to continue its work in serenity and to maintain a necessary separation between private and family life and professional responsibilities, the examining magistrate Michel Claise informs us that he has decided this evening to withdraw from the case.”
“This despite the absence of effective elements that might cast doubt on the probity of each speaker and the substantial work that the investigators and him have done in this case,” continued the prosecution. “It is therefore another investigating judge, who has already intervened several times previously in the case, who will take over the direction of the investigation.”
The Federal Prosecutor’s Office has concluded that, in the interest of the investigation, it will not make any further statements regarding this case today.
We also learned in the evening that the Italian MEP Andrea Cozzolino had arrived in Belgium and had been heard on Monday by the examining magistrate Claise.
According to Belgian justice, Andrea Cozzolino, president since 2019 of the Delegation for relations with the countries of the Maghreb, would have “unduly received (…) money to exercise his European parliamentary functions in such a way as to favor the interests of Morocco in the European Parliament”. Accusations that the MEP has always firmly rejected.
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