People want to know the latest news about Andrea Cozzolino. Andrea Cozzolino, an Italian MEP, was arrested for corruption. Let’s take a closer look at Andrea Cozzolino news and other facts. Andrea Cozzolino, an Italian politician, has been a member of the European Parliament since 2009. He was first elected as a member of parliament in 2009, and was re-elected in 2014 and 2019.
Cozzolino has been a member of the Committee for Regional Development of the House of Representatives since 2014. In 2019, he also joined the Subcommittee on Human Rights. Cozzolino previously served on the Budget Oversight Committee (2009-2012), the Budget Committee (2009-2013) and the Petitions Committee (2014-2019). Let’s start with Andrea Cozzolin’s news.
Andrea Cozzolino arrested for corruption in Italy
According to his lawyer, Italian Member of the European Parliament Andrea Cozzolino was arrested on Friday evening as part of an investigation into suspected corruption in the European Parliament. He returned home. Cozzolino has returned home, although he is still under house arrest, reports ANSA. He opposed extradition to Belgium because of the “method of handling” in the Belgian court, according to the statement.
Cozzolino’s legal team said they had repeatedly written to the court since December 21 asking to be heard, but had never heard back. According to ANSA, Cozzolino’s extradition hearing will be held on Tuesday morning. Belgian officials issued an arrest warrant and the operation began early Friday morning with the arrest of Belgian MEP Marc Tarabella. Cozzolin and Tarabella’s immunity was lifted in a plenary vote on Thursday, allowing Belgian investigators to detain them.
More information about Andrea Cozzolin’s news
Belgian authorities also conducted further searches on Tarabella and Cozzolino on Friday. Earlier on Friday, Belgian police searched Cozzolino’s residence in Brussels and sealed, but did not search, his office in the European Parliament, according to a representative of the Belgian prosecutor. In a press release, the prosecutor noted that various offices in the Walloon town of Anthisnes, where Tarabella is still mayor, were searched, as well as Tarabella’s safe deposit box at a bank in Liège. Tarabella and Cozzolino may have broken Belgian law by participating in corruption, belonging to a criminal group or money laundering, according to the legislative findings.
However, the prosecutor’s office only mentioned corruption and money laundering in its statement from Friday. Niccol Figà-Talamanca, the secretary general of No Peace Without Justice, one of the NGOs linked to the Qatargate corruption scandal, was released from prison late last week by the Belgian investigative judge overseeing the case. The other three suspects are former vice-president of the European Parliament Eva Kaili, her boyfriend Francesco Giorgi and former MEP Pier Antonio Panzeri. Panzeri agreed to cooperate with investigators in January. Both Cozzolino and Tarabella deny any wrongdoing.
Career of Andrea Cozzolino
On November 23, 2022, Cozzolino voted against the European Parliament resolution calling the Russian Federation a state sponsor of terrorism. The National Guarantee Commission of the PD decided to suspend Cozzolin from the party on December 16, 2022, “pending the conclusion of the ongoing judicial investigations related to the ‘Qatargate’ incident.”
After Brando Benifei, the leader of the PD party in the European Parliament, announced that the party voted for the request to revoke the immunity of MEPs Cozzolino and Marco Tarabella, which was requested by the Belgian prosecutor and supported by President Roberta Metsola, Cozzolino announces his intention to renounce it.
Categories: Entertaintment
Source: HIS Education