Court to rule on buildings fraud case

A Brussels court will decide next week (12 April) whether to keep in custody the three men arrested in connection with alleged fraud involving European Commission offices abroad.

The advisory chamber of the court of first instance will decide whether to keep the three Italian nationals, a European Commission official, an assistant to an Italian MEP and a businessman, in preventive custody.

Under Belgian law, the court has to decide whether there is sufficient evidence to continue holding them, taking into account the likelihood of them committing further crimes or absconding.

The three men, Giancarlo Ciotti, a 46-year-old Commission official responsible for training for external delegations, Angelo Troiano, the 39-year-old boss of a building company, and Sergio Tricarico, 60, assistant to Italian MEP Giovanni Rivera, were arrested on 27 March and held on charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy.

The case involves alleged bribes paid in return for contracts involving Commission offices and security systems in India and other countries. A spokesman for the Belgian prosecutor said that the case probably concerned "millions of euros for more than ten years".

The case was brought to light when a Finnish company complained that it had been asked to pay a bribe of hundreds of thousands of euros to win contracts for work on the Commission office in New Delhi.

The Commission confirmed this week that Ciotti had been moved to new responsibilities in 2004. The Commission has 132 delegations in countries around the world and spends around €500 million a year running them.

A Brussels court will decide next week (12 April) whether to keep in custody the three men arrested in connection with alleged fraud involving European Commission offices abroad.