Belgium’s on-again, off-again hunt for the men accused of corrupting the European Parliament

BRUSSELS — Should the key figures accused of corrupting the European Parliament be arrested or not?

That’s the question at the heart of the scandal known as Qatargate — the most serious corruption allegations to hit European Union institutions in decades. In a sprawling Belgian police and intelligence investigation, major diplomatic and government figures have been accused of funneling payments to members of the European Parliament in exchange for influencing decisions in favor of Qatar and Morocco.

In January, Belgian authorities issued a national notification for the arrest of Qatari Labor Minister Ali Bin Samikh Al Marri, his aide Bettahar Boudjellal and Morocco’s ambassador to Poland, Abderrahim Atmoun, according to Belgian police reports seen by POLITICO.

Later that month, Michel Claise, then the lead investigative judge in the case, ordered the notifications for arrest to be rescinded.

At a later date, new notifications for the arrest were issued for the two representatives of the Qatari government, only for one of them to be lifted once again. 

If that sounds confusing, it’s because it is. Experts consulted by POLITICO said the abrupt issuing and rescinding of notifications for arrest is not common practice.

“It’s quite unusual to issue a national notification for the arrest of someone and then lift it only a week later, unless in the meantime the person has been found by the police or if something in the investigation completely extinguishes the lead,” said Anthony Rizzo, a lawyer and a law professor at Brussels’ ULB university who has sometimes faced off against Claise.

‘Criminal activity’

In Atmoun’s case, Claise first drew up a request to French authorities on January 5 to freeze the Moroccan diplomat’s assets in France, including a three-star hotel and apartment and any bank accounts he might have, the documents showed.

He followed up the next day with a national notification for Atmoun’s arrest. The notifications for the arrests of Boudjellal and Al Marri were issued on January 11.

Claise then drew up the paperwork to request European arrest warrants and Interpol red notices for Atmoun on January 12, according to the documents seen by POLITICO.

Claise’s requests allege that “as part of his activity in a criminal organization, Mr. Atmoun as a corrupter received funds from Moroccan authorities to proceed to various corruption acts toward public servants (members of the European Parliament) or their assistants in order to influence decisions at the Parliament in favor of Morocco’s kingdom.” [Parentheses in original.]

The notifications of arrest for all three men were lifted on January 18. But that doesn’t mean they were no longer wanted.

Still wanted?

That same day, formal Belgian arrest warrants were issued for Boudjellal and Al Marri, according to documents seen by POLITICO. Arrest warrants are distinct from notifications for arrest because they mean the subject can be jailed, as opposed to being held in preventive detention for up to 48 hours.

Two months later, the prosecutors sought help from police overseas. They requested European arrest warrants and Interpol red notices for Al Marri and Boudjellal on charges of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization. The request specified that Qatar and Morocco should not be made aware of the red notice.

By this point, the authorities had also issued new national notifications for the arrest of Boudjellal and Al Marri in Belgium, according to the documents seen by POLITICO.

But the back and forth didn’t end there. On May 16 this year, Claise temporarily lifted both national and international notifications for the arrest of Al Marri. It’s unclear from the documents whether these were later reimposed.

The big question is why the prosecutors kept changing their minds. Various rumours are circulating but nothing has been confirmed.

On Friday, Belgian media claimed Al Marri’s warrant had been lifted in exchange for Qatar’s help in negotiating the release of Olivier Vandecasteele, a Belgian humanitarian worker who has been detained in Iran for more than a year. 

Later that day, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said there had “never been any connection with any other case to secure the release of Olivier Vandecasteele” or the three other European citizens released by Iran shortly afterward. He added that it was Oman, not Qatar, that facilitated the negotiations.

Diplomatic immunity

Further complicating any potential arrest is the fact that both Al Marri and Atmoun could claim diplomatic immunity. The Qatari labor minister would potentially be protected from arrest if he traveled abroad on behalf of his country, while Atmoun would be exempt from prosecution as an ambassador if he was found in Poland, where he was officially based. 

A European arrest warrant for Atmoun, however, could “be executed without reservation in any European Union country, except in Poland,” according to Jessica Finelle, a French criminal lawyer. 

Since the scandal broke last December, Al Marri has not officially set foot in the European Union. He has, however, traveled to Jordan to meet with his Palestinian counterpart; visited Morocco; and also traveled to Geneva, Switzerland in July, when he acted as president of a conference at the 111th International Labour Organization — a United Nations agency whose mandate is to advance social and economic justice by setting international labor standards. 

Atmoun, for his part, “passed a lot of time in his residence” after news of the corruption scandal broke, according to a declassified report by the Belgian secret services, included in the police documents seen by POLITICO. He had planned to spend the New Year holidays in Morocco but left early, keeping the date of his flight a secret. He attributed his haste, the report adds, to his mother’s poor health.

Interpol declined to comment on whether red notices had been issued for the three men. Europol and Eurojust, the agencies responsible for European arrest warrants, referred questions to the Belgian federal prosecutor’s office, which did not respond to a request for comment. 

The French interior ministry also declined to comment. Atmoun, Boudjellal, Al Marri and the embassies of Qatar and Morocco did not reply to requests for comment. Morocco’s foreign affairs minister has denied the country’s involvement in the Qatargate scandal. Qatar has rejected allegations it interfered in EU democracy.