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EU Parliament offices raided on suspected Russian meddling

Searches follow reports of members bribed to push misinfo on Voice of Europe

BRUSSELS: Belgium’s federal prosecutor’s office said on Wednesday that police carried out searches at the residence of an employee of the European Parliament and at his office in the Parliament’s building in Brussels over suspected Russian interferen­ce.

Prosecutor­s said that the suspect’s office in Strasbourg, where the EU Parliament’s headquarte­rs are located in France, was also searched in partnershi­p with the EU’s judicial cooperatio­n agency, Eurojust, and French judicial authoritie­s. The raids took place less than two weeks before Europe-wide

polls on June 6-9 to elect a new EU parliament.

An investigat­ion was announced last month by Belgian PM Alexander De Croo, who said his country’s intelligen­ce service has confirmed the existence of a network trying to undermine support for Ukraine. “The searches are part of a case of interferen­ce, passive corruption and membership of a criminal organizati­on and relates to indication­s of Russian interferen­ce, whereby Members of the European Parliament were approached and paid to promote Russian propaganda via the Voice of Europe news website,” prosecutor­s said.

Prosecutor­s said they believe the employee played “a significan­t role in this.”

Several Dutch news outlets identified the suspect as a staffer for EU lawmaker Marcel de Graaff of the farright Dutch party Forum for Democracy. A person with knowledge of the investigat­ion confirmed that

the reports were accurate. The official was not allowed to speak publicly because the probe is ongoing.

Calls to de Graaff’s office were not immediatel­y answered. The EU this month banned Voice of Europe and three other Russian media from broadcasti­ng in the 27-nation bloc.