Qatargate: “Unbelievable that Pantseri was offered a plea deal” – What Tarabella’s lawyer says

“It’s unbelievable that a transmember agreement was proposed to Pancheri – who is considered to be the head of this criminal organization – without his words ever being contradicted with what my client supports,” Maxime Toller, defense attorney for Belgian MEP Mark Tarabella, told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera.

The lawyer estimates that “there is a risk of Tarabela’s arrest”, but considers that “there are no legal reasons for such a thing to happen”. “If it does, it will be imprisonment with the aim of putting pressure on it to collapse,” adds Toler.

“Tarabela feels disappointed and betrayed, he also regrets the consequences this story has on his family. He was excluded from his party, from the group of Socialists and Democrats and suffered all this without being able to defend himself”, the lawyer tells Corriere. “However, he is very combative, he wants to fight”, he explains.

Toler denies that his client ever received the amount of 120,000 euros and states that “the leader of this criminal organization achieved the lowest sentence provided in these cases”. As for Francesco Giorgi, the lawyer states that “he said he suspected Mark Tarabella, but that he was never present in the phase of payment of money by Pancheri».

Max Toller also claims in the Italian newspaper that his client’s change of attitude towards Qatar is not due to financing, but to a series of elements, such as a UN report, a trip he himself made in February 2020 (when he asked to visit one of the stages of the World Cup to ascertain the conditions of the workers on the construction sites), but also a report by the NGO Human Rights Watch (Human Rights Watch).

“Mark Tarabella did not receive gifts and did not go to Qatar for the World Cup, even though he is a sports fan. He met the Qatari Minister of Labor al-Mari at the European Parliament and during an official visit to Qatar, in 2021, with the Inter-Sport delegation”, the lawyer finally emphasizes, according to the Athens News Agency.