Qatargate: Panzeri's wife, daughter released

(ANSA) - ROME, JAN 26 - A court in Brescia on Thursday ordered that the wife and daughter of former Italian MEP Antonio Panzeri, a central figure in the 'Qatargate' corruption scandal, be released from house arrest after the Belgian authorities dropped a request for their extradition.
    Panzeri has started cooperating with Belgian prosecutors probing alleged attempts by Qatar and Morocco to influence EU affairs via bribery after last week cutting a plea bargain for a one-year jail term.
    He has been charged with corruption along with fellow Italians Francesco Giorgi, an assistant to Democratic Party (PD) MEP Andrea Cozzolino, and Niccolo' Figa'-Talamanca, the secretary general of the No Peace Without Justice NGO.
    Greek MEP Eva Kaili, who was removed from her position as European Parliament vice president after the scandal exploded and has been in jail since December 9, has been charged too.
    She is Giorgi's partner.
    A Brussels court on Thursday is holding hearings to rule on whether Giorgi and Figa'-Talamanca should remain in jail.
    Cozzolino, meanwhile, told the European Parliament's justice committee this week that he was ready to forego his immunity from prosecution.
    The committee is set to hold a first vote on January 31 on whether to grant prosecutor's requests for the immunity of Cozzolino and Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella to be removed.
    The floor of the European Parliament will have the final say.
    Cozzolino, who denies any wrongdoing, told the committee that he was the victim of a "violent press campaign that is devastating my family on the basis of a mew suspicion".
    He has been suspended by the PD and he suspended himself from the Socialist (S&D) caucus in the European Parliament (ANSA).