Italian authorities arrested Lucia Simeone, an assistant to MEP Fulvio Martusciello, affiliated with the European People’s Party (EPP), under a European arrest warrant issued by Belgian prosecutors, according to Euractiv.
Simeone was detained on allegations of criminal association, money laundering, and corruption, as reported by national media. She is scheduled to be questioned on Saturday. It is not yet clear whether her arrest is connected to two ongoing cases involving Martusciello – one related to the Huawei investigation and the other concerning expenses fraud.
Earlier this week, Belgian media revealed that Belgian police have been investigating Martusciello and former MEP Giuseppe Ferrandino (Renew) for over a year. The two are suspected of forging signatures to fraudulently claim parliamentary allowances, allegedly covering for each other to maximise expenses.
Martusciello’s name has also surfaced in connection with a Portuguese lawyer and lobbyist arrested in France last week as part of the same Belgian-led probe into Huawei’s influence operations, according to the Portuguese newspaper Expresso.
Last week, Belgian authorities sealed two offices linked to the investigation – one belonging to EPP MEP Marco Falcone and the other to Adam Mouchtar, an assistant to Bulgarian Renew MEP Nikola Minchev. On Monday, Falcone’s offices were returned to his assistants after the European Parliament’s Directorate-General for Safety and Security (DG Safe) removed the seals.
Falcone stated that the seals were placed “despite the complete lack of involvement of myself and my assistants in the Huawei investigation.” He added that he is considering legal action to address the damage to his reputation caused by recent events.
To date, the Belgian investigation has led to the arrest of four lobbyists linked to Huawei, who are suspected of bribing current and former MEPs to advance Chinese interests in Europe.
