Ahmad 
Moroccan officials in Morocco have been questioned as part of a corruption investigation into the European Parliament involving Qatar and Morocco, prosecutors said on Saturday.
The interrogations, conducted by local authorities in the presence of Belgian investigators, are the first in the country since Brussels launched a wide-ranging corruption investigation in 2022.
“Belgian investigators travelled to Morocco this week accompanied by an investigating judge and a judge from the Federal Prosecutor’s Office to carry out investigative missions and hearings,” a spokesman for the Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said, declining to reveal the names of the people heard.
Several media reports identified one of those questioned as Morocco’s ambassador to Poland, Abderrahim Atmoun.
The 68-year-old diplomat is suspected of playing a key role in providing money and gifts from Qatar to European MPs to influence it within the EU’s sole elected institution, particularly with regard to its record on workers’ rights, in the so-called Qatargate scandal.
Three MEPs were stopped as part of the investigation, during which police carried out searches in December 2022, during which 1.5 million euros in cash were found at various addresses in Brussels.
Qatar and Morocco deny involvement in any such wrongdoing.