Uncovered payments made by Human rights foundation. Payments also from the organization of Figà-Talamanca.
Monthly transfers from two NGOs, the Italian No Peace Without Justice and the American Human Rights Foundation, involved in Qatargate together with Fight Impunity of the former Pd deputy (later in Article 1) Antonio Panzeri. More than the balance of two hundred thousand euros on the account of the lawyer daughter Silvia Panzeri, what intrigues the investigators are the movements of the last two years, on which the Brussels prosecutor is investigating. Payments of a few thousand euros, on a monthly basis, from two NGOs already mentioned in the documents. No Peace Without Justice already appeared in the first days of the investigation. Its general manager, Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, accused of having collected money from the association’s accounts to launder the proceeds of corruption, was arrested on December 9 together with Antonio Panzeri, Francesco Giorgi and Eva Kaili. Of the Human Rights Foundation, one of the most authoritative NGOs dealing with human rights in the world, had instead spoken in his interrogation in Belgium, Francesco Giorgi, Kaili’s companion, who after being Panzeri’s assistant was also that of the MEP Pd Andrea Cozzolino.
The First Evidence on The Payments to Panzeri’s Daughter
From the first evidence on the payments to Panzeri’s daughter, the monthly incoming payments would be more consistent by the Italian NGO, and smaller by the American one. At the moment the Milan public prosecutor’s office, with the deputy prosecutor Fabio De Pasquale and the tax rate of the Guardia di Finanza at the Palazzo di Giusti colleagues from Belgium. In the next few days De Pasquale, head of the department on international corruption, will be on the phone with his counterpart in Brussels in view of the meeting in Milan for the delivery of the forensic copy of the seized material. Two accounts of the Panzeri family have been analysed: one, with a balance of around 40 thousand euros, in the name of Antonio Panzeri and his wife Maria Dolores Colleoni; the other from his daughter, with a balance of two hundred thousand euros. Just two days ago, the Court of Review of Bergamo rejected the request for revocation of the seizure of the 240 thousand euros proposed by the lawyers Angelo De Riso and Nicola Colli, on the basis of alleged formal defects in the provision with which the Brussels prosecutor’s office had requested the freezing. However, this argument was not accepted by the court.
The accounts remain seized. And they may be the subject of in-depth analysis by the Brussels prosecutors. The magistrates will also have to understand in what capacity the payments from No Peace Without Justice were made. “The professional relationship with the lawyer Silvia Panzeri, interrupted today, had been established by Dr. Figà-Talamanca, who managed it – specifies the NGO’s lawyer, Guido Camera -. Based on the elements currently available to the No peace without justice association, it does not emerge in any way that the fees received by the lawyer Panzeri have criminal relevance in relation to the corruption and money laundering facts mentioned in the newspapers. Should the ongoing investigations reveal a different reality, the association will draw the necessary consequences”. Hrf, on the other hand, did not respond to our request for clarification.
In front of the Brussels investigating judge Michael Claise, Giorgi had instead reconstructed the link between Panzeri’s Fight Impunity and the American NGO. Calling it an unhealthy system, Panzeri’s right-hand man had explained that it was the former MEP of the Democratic Party who spoke of the establishment of an NGO (precisely Fight Impunity) to get the money, at the suggestion of the “Algerian”, or Bettahar Boudjellal, emissary of the Qataris. The money for Panzeri’s NGO would formally arrive through the Human Rights Foundation led by President Thor Halvorssen. A decidedly more discreet way to finance Panzeri and his friends. Giorgi’s claims are all to be verified, also because he himself claims that he has no proof of the fact that Qatar financed the American NGO. But the findings made on the accounts of the Panzeri family seem to move in this direction.
This article is originally published on infosannio.com
Discussion about this post