BRUSSELS — Eva Kaili is back home — for now.
On Friday, Kaili, one of the main suspects in a cash-for-influence corruption probe at the European Parliament, was released from jail to house arrest pending a trial.
The Greek EU lawmaker had been locked up since last December, when she became one of the first people arrested and charged with corruption in a sprawling investigation into whether foreign countries, including Qatar and Morocco, were bribing EU lawmakers.
Kaili, a celebrity politician back home, managed to evade the cameras Friday morning as she left the Haren prison in the north of Brussels and entered a waiting black Mercedes with tinted windows. The car then ferried her home for the first time in four months.
She arrived at around 11 a.m. at her apartment on Rue Wiertz, bringing her within about 100 meters of the European Parliament’s main buildings — the institution she stands accused of helping corrupt. Kaili has maintained her innocence throughout.
Sitting at the back of the car next to her lawyer Michalis Dimitrakopoulos, Kaili lowered the window and smiled, greeting a gaggle of around 15 journalists from the Greek and international press.
“Thank you very much, my daughter is waiting for me. I’m very happy today that I will be her again,” she told the reporters — her first public remarks since being arrested in December.
“The fight continues with determination from my lawyers,” she added. “We will talk soon.”
With that, the car disappeared into a garage.
Shortly after Kaili arrived home, her father Alexandros Kailis — who was caught in December with a cash-filled suitcase his daughter had given him — was spotted on the apartment’s balcony smoking a cigarette in the sun while sipping a hot drink.
The building is a popular spot for EU lawmakers — 10 MEPs live there in addition to Kaili.
The so-called Qatargate probe has also ensnared Kaili’s partner, Francesco Giorgi, and several other current and former EU lawmakers, including former Italian EU lawmaker Pier Antonio Panzeri — the alleged ringleader of a bribery network who struck a plea deal with Belgian investigators in January.
Since then, all the detained suspects have been released with an electronic monitoring tag, leaving Kaili last.
Giorgi, Kaili’s partner, is also out of jail under house arrest but is not living in Kaili’s apartment, according to Dimitrakopoulos.
Kaili’s team is quickly spinning her move to house arrest as a step forward in the fight to clear her name.
“She came out of prison last, because he did not take advice and admonitions from various people to plead guilty,” Dimitrakopoulos told reporters on Thursday ahead of her release. “She refused to sign because she is innocent.”
