Pressure On Judges To Stop ‘Morocco Gate’ Investigation

Those in charge of the European Parliament’s corruption file, known as “Morocco Gate,” in which prominent figures of the Moroccan Makhzen regime are accused, have revealed the pressure they are under to influence the normal course of the case. These pressures were embodied in the withdrawal of the Belgian investigating judge in charge of the case, Michel Claes, and his replacement by a new judge.
Some 13 months after the scandal broke, the case is still at a standstill, despite the steps taken by the Belgian judiciary in collaboration with the intelligence services and the federal police, which, as is well known, led to the arrest of many of the accused, such as the Greek vice-president of the European Parliament, Eva. Kylie, her Italian companion Francesco Giorgi, the Italian deputy Pierre Antonio Panzeri and the Belgian Marc T
On Sunday, the French newspaper Le Monde quoted a judicial source connected to this file, whose identity was not revealed, as saying: “The question no longer seems taboo in (Belgian) judicial circles. The percentage of the Belgian judiciary that will continue to study the case and bring it to an end will be 50%.” /50 (percent)”.
It is known that Algeria was among the targets of the corruption scandal in the European Parliament, as the network formed by the Moroccan secret service worked to harm Algerian interests by inciting the issuance of resolutions against Algeria and Western Sahara and preventing the issuance of resolutions criticizing the Moroccan Makhzen regime’s gross violations against the Moroccan people and covering up the miserable human rights situation in Western Sahara.
These pressures are summed up in the words of the Belgian Federal Prosecutor, Frederic Van Leeuw, in September 2023: “The matter is almost over. I have been a federal prosecutor for ten years and I have never seen such pressure as in this case”, speaking to French-speaking Belgian radio and television.
The prosecutor spoke of “leaks everywhere, judges who are strangers to the case contacting us and sometimes wanting to get involved in the investigation, and there has also been harassment of the former investigating judge and his family. To me, this is disgusting.” It is known that the investigating judge in charge of the case, Michel Cleese, left his post last June because of these harassments and interventions by parties unrelated to the case, and was replaced by Judge Aurélie Dujaev.
It is suspected that the “former investigating magistrate” left his post because of a possible conflict of interest, since his son founded a company with Marie Arena, a Belgian MEP suspected of being close to the network of Antonio Panzeri, the first accused in the corruption scandal involving members of the European Parliament, and who, according to documents obtained by Belgian investigators, was constantly visiting Morocco and staying in the most luxurious Moroccan hotels at the expense of the Moroccan government.
The deputy Marie Arena was questioned by the secret services of her country as an element of the Panzeri network, but she defends herself and says that she made several requests to be heard by the new investigating judge, Aurélie Dugaev, but “nothing moved”, she confirms to the newspaper. “Le Monde”.
According to the judicial source, the fate of the case will remain pending until next May, the date of the next meeting of the indictment chamber at the Brussels court level. “An examination of the merits of the case will in fact be indicated later”, says Le Monde, while calling on the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to control all the actions that have taken place since the opening of the investigation. Meanwhile, the new investigating magistrate must continue her investigation “.