Caserta – A European arrest warrant, issued in Brussels and arriving at dawn yesterday in Caserta, led to the arrest of Lucia Simeone, long-time secretary of Fulvio Martusciello, head of the Forza Italia delegation in the European Parliament.
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The charges are serious: criminal association, money laundering and corruption. Although there is still no official confirmation on the investigation, the first information suggests a link with the Huawei case, the new alleged corruption scandal that is shaking the European Parliament, with dynamics that closely resemble Qatargate.
After the four lobbyists linked to the Chinese telecommunications giant who ended up in Belgian prisons, Simeone would be the first exponent of the EU political world to be implicated in the web of investigation.
Stopped in a bed and breakfast in Marcianise, about thirty kilometers from her hometown of Ercolano, she was transferred to the Secondigliano prison, awaiting the preliminary hearing scheduled for Saturday before Judge Corinna Forte of the Court of Appeal of Naples.
“I would like to understand what we are answering for, where and when the facts occurred: the bare minimum to be able to submit to questioning,” said Simeone’s lawyer, Antimo Giaccio, who complained about the lack of details from the Italian judiciary, calling the measure “skimpy.” The defense attorney was keen to point out that his client was “just a mere executor of orders, a secretary.”
The connection with Huawei and the role of Martusciello
The investigation, still in its initial stages, revolves around the alleged round of bribes, gifts and favours orchestrated by Valerio Ottati, the Italian-Belgian at the helm of EU affairs in Huawei, to steer European policy in favor of Chinese interests. The Belgian investigators' suspicions focus on the possible involvement of former and current MEPs and parliamentary assistants.
With Simeone's arrest, the circle seems to be closing in on Fulvio Martusciello, although the Forza Italia delegation leader is not formally under investigation. However, his name had already emerged in relation to a letter dated 4 January 2021, signed by several MEPs - including Patriciello and Milazzo (FI), Dorfman (Südtiroler Volkspartei), Ferrandino (Azione) and the Romanians from the EPP Busoi and Buda - and drafted, according to several sources, by Ottati himself.
The letter, addressed to the top of the EU Commission, asked to exclude 5G from the political debate, avoiding the ban on Chinese equipment from European infrastructures.
A request that, however, fell on deaf ears: on 15 June 2023, Brussels in fact recommended to the Twenty-Seven to exclude Huawei and ZTE from their networks, considering them a high risk for national security.
Belgium's silence and the hypotheses on the investigations
During the day, the lack of official communications from Belgium fueled speculation about a possible link between Simeone's arrest and the investigation into inflated reimbursements, which also sees Martusciello and Azione MEP Giosi Ferrandino in the crosshairs of the European Public Prosecutor's Office. However, internal sources at the European Public Prosecutor's Office (Eppo) denied this hypothesis, ruling out having issued arrest warrants in relation to this investigation.
Meanwhile, the EPP, the European family of Forza Italia, has chosen the line of caution. "There will be maximum collaboration with justice, but if someone has violated the rules they will have to take responsibility", is the official position of Manfred Weber's Popular Party.
The timing of the investigation and the Whanon Martins case
The investigating judge is dictating the timing and methods of the investigation – and of the communication, the prosecutor's office specified, without providing further clarifications even on the timing for the extradition of Nuno Whanon Martins, the Portuguese with a past as advisor to Martusciello for the Middle East, arrested in France after searches of his residences in Portugal.
The Huawei investigation is still coming together, but the scandal looks set to become increasingly clear, with potentially far-reaching political and judicial repercussions.
Article published on March 21, 2025 - 06pm
It is a complicated situation and it is not easy to understand everything that is happening. The Huawei issue and the arrest of Simeone are aspects that deserve a more in-depth analysis to clarify the dynamics involved in this investigation.