European Union Vice President Eva Kaili arrested in Brussels as part of criminal corruption probe

A vice president of the European Union was arrested and charged on Friday as part of a corruption investigation related to a “Gulf country,” according to media reports.

Eva Kaili “was brought in for questioning in Brussels on Friday evening in connection with an investigation into suspected corruption,” EuroNews reported on Saturday. 

As part of the investigation, Belgian police searched 16 homes and detained at least four individuals in the City of Brussels where the EU is temporarily located. The searches were reportedly part of an ongoing probe that prosecutors have called a “criminal organization, corruption and money laundering.”

Brussels is the de facto headquarters for the EU. Many of the European Union’s most significant institutions are located there. 

As a result of the investigation, Kaili was also provisionally expelled from one of the most prominent left leaning organizations of which she was a member.

Kaili’s EU office was “sealed by Belgium police,” EuroNews reported, along with those of “two Belgian socialist MEPs, Maria Arena and Marc Tarabella.”