Belgian prosecutors make arrests in a corruption probe linked to the European Parliament

People wait in line to visit the European Parliament during Europe Day celebrations in Brussels on May 4, 2024. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo, File)

BRUSSELS — Belgian federal prosecutors said Thursday they have arrested several individuals as part of a corruption investigation linked to the European Parliament amid reports in local media that Chinese company Huawei bribed EU lawmakers.

Some 100 federal police officers carried out 21 searches in Brussels as well as in Flanders, Wallonia and Portugal, the federal prosecutor’s office said.

The suspects were arrested for questioning in “connection with their alleged involvement in active corruption within the European Parliament, as well as for forgery and use of forgeries,” prosecutors said. “The offences were allegedly committed by a criminal organization.”

According to an investigation by Le Soir newspaper and other media, lobbyists working for Chinese telecoms giant Huawei are suspected of bribing current or former MEPs to promote the company’s commercial policy in Europe.

Huawei public relations representatives in London did not respond to an emailed request for comment and could not be reached by phone.

A European Parliament spokesperson said only that the assembly “takes note of the information. When requested, it always cooperates fully with the judicial authorities.”

The federal prosecutor’s office, which did not name Huawei, said that corruption is believed to have been practiced “regularly and very discreetly from 2021 to the present day, and taking various forms, such as remuneration for taking political positions or excessive gifts such as food and travel expenses or regular invitations to football matches.”

Prosecutors believe that payments might have been disguised as business expenses and in some cases may have been directed to third parties. “From this point of view, the investigation also aims to detect any evidence of money laundering,” they said.

Police seized several documents and objects during the searches.

Staff at Huawei’s offices in Brussels declined to speak to an AP reporter. They turned the lights off inside when he started taking pictures through the window.

This is the second corruption case targeting the EU Parliament in less than three years. In December 2022, the legislature was left reeling after a corruption scandal in which Qatari officials accused of bribing EU officials to play down labor rights concerns ahead of the soccer World Cup.

The scandal scarred the reputation of the EU’s only institution comprised of officials elected directly in the 27 member countries. It undermined the assembly’s claim to the moral high ground in its own investigations, such as into allegations of corruption in member country Hungary.

The impact of the scandal is still being felt, with the parliament due to rule soon on whether to lift the immunity of two more lawmakers who were implicated

According to Follow The Money, an investigative journalism platform, one of the main suspects in the latest probe is 41-year-old Valerio Ottati, a Belgian-Italian lobbyist who joined Huawei in 2019. Before becoming Huawei’s EU Public Affairs Director, Ottati was an assistant to two Italian MEPs who were both members of a European Parliament group dealing with China policy, Follow the Money reported.

Lorne Cook in Brussels and Kelvin Chan in London contributed. Petrequin reported from Paris.

Article written by Samuel Petrequin and Sylvain Plazy, The Associated Press