seized nearly €1.5m in cash
It was a difficult crowd. MEPs from left and right lined up to criticise Qatar’s labour rights record. One football-loving MEP said he would not watch a single game, while another denounced the tournament as “the World Cup of shame”. Some confidential details from the investigation have already been reported. According to a judicial document
Seated inside the modern, wood-panelled committee room 3G-3 in Brussels on 14 November was his close confidant and former assistant Francesco Giorgi, an Italian parliament staffer, who has also been detained pending trial. Panzeri correctly anticipated damning criticism of Qatar’s record on migrant workers’ rights from several MEPs when the subcommittee met, and he allegedly made plans.