Just 5 months before the Qatargate corruption scandal broke out, which led to the imprisonment of Eva Kaili, accused of financing from Qatar, in Athens the Saudi prince had lunch in a meeting with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, European Commissioner Margaritis Ropes and the former MEP.
According to the Editors Newspaper in collaboration with the Dutch platform Follow the Money and Reporters United, just a few days after the publication of Politico, which revealed that Saudi Arabia approached Kyriakos Mitsotakis and offered to pay for all the infrastructure in Greece and Egypt in order to agree to jointly host the 2030 World Cup, the Commission vice-president made an extraordinary trip to Athens on July 27, aiming to have lunch with Saudi Prince bin Salman and Eva Kaili.
The meeting with Edi Rama and the “anthems” of the Albanian prime minister
According to Doman’s report, the former Prime Minister of Italy Renzi, the Prime Minister of Albania Edi Rama, the Prime Minister of Montenegro and the Saudi Minister of Energy participated in this meeting.
In fact, Rama said in his statements that he was in Athens, with the aim of an energy agreement , describing Bin Salman as a “friend”.
As the newspaper reports, the Saudi prince who had invited Mitsotakis to Ryan, in February 2020 and October 2021, did not come to our country “empty-handed”, as the value of the agreements signed during the trip is estimated to 4 billion euros.
A total of 700 people on 7 aircraft accompanied Bin Salman to the Four Seasons in Asteras Vouliagmenis, where the “secret meal” reportedly took place.
A meal which, according to the publication, was not on the schedule of the prime minister, Schinas, nor Kaili.
In questions sent by Reporters United to the prime minister about the meal at the luxury hotel, he says he did not receive any response.
The report mentions the publication of Spiegel magazine, according to which Kaili’s husband, Fr. Giorgi, allegedly testified to the Belgian authorities that together with former MEP Panzeri they had considered, just a week before they were arrested, the possibility of cooperation with a representative of Saudi Arabia.
According to Giorgi “they met the Saudi ambassador in the Mauritanian mission to the EU, who wanted information about what is being said about his country in the European Parliament”.
source: bankingnews
