ATHENS (dpa-AFX) – The former Vice President of the European Parliament, Eva Kaili, who is suspected of corruption, does not want to return to Greece without an acquittal. “If I don’t manage to convince the Belgian judiciary that I’m innocent, I will never return to my home country,” Kaili told the Athens weekly To Vima on Saturday. The Belgian judiciary allowed her to leave prison on Friday after almost four months, subject to conditions. She must remain under house arrest with electronic surveillance. “I will never admit that I betrayed the people who voted for me,” Kaili added.
Kaili spent the first evening under house arrest with her daughter in her apartment in Brussels, her lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos told the Athens news channel Skai on Saturday from Brussels. “She wants to be back in the European Parliament (after the end of the legal process),” said Dimitrakopoulos. The scandal, which became public at the end of last year, is about alleged influence on decisions of the EU Parliament by the governments of Qatar and Morocco. The public prosecutor accuses Kaili and other suspects of corruption, money laundering and membership in a criminal organization./tt/mjm/DP/zb