US Senator Robert Menendez is also said to have helped Qatar in exchange for gifts. This was evident from legal documents on Tuesday local time. He was previously accused of taking bribes to benefit Egypt.
The Democratic senator is said to have received bribes to facilitate a Qatari investment in a real estate project in New Jersey. According to the indictment, the senator has made several public statements supporting the Qatari government. He then allegedly sent those statements to the real estate developer so that he could share them with his contacts in Qatar.
Menendez, 70, and his wife are said to have accepted hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes, including gold bars, large sums of money and other valuables.
In September, Menendez denied all allegations and refused to resign.
Belgian-Iranian prisoner exchange
In 2022, as chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the US Senate, Menendez opposed the protocol that Belgium concluded with Iran on the transfer of convicted prisoners. The senator feared that this protocol would open the door to the transfer and eventual release of Iranian Assadollah Assadi, who was sentenced to twenty years in prison in Antwerp in 2021 for his role in a foiled bomb attack in Paris in 2018.
Ultimately, Assadi was exchanged by our country early last year for Belgian NGO employee Olivier Vandecasteele, who had been locked up in Iran since February 2022. Through a mock trial, Vandecasteele was sentenced to 40 years in prison and 74 lashes for alleged espionage. Vandecasteele is said to have been held only to serve as a bargaining chip for Assadi’s release.
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