The Belgian Police on Tuesday searched two homes of former European Justice Commissioner Didier Reynders and he was questioned as part of an investigation into money laundering through the purchase of a type of lottery during his term as minister.
The liberal, who was Minister of Foreign Affairs between 2011 and 2019, is being investigated after a complaint from the Financial Information Processing Unit (Ctif) and the National Lottery for detecting suspicious transactions for a relatively high amount in lottery purchases.
The police operation comes just three days after Reynders left his post in the EU. As the investigation is focused on a period of time in which Reynders was a minister and later a European commissioner, for the moment he enjoys immunity and has not been arrested, as reported by ‘Le Soir’.
If the Brussels Prosecutor’s Office decides to pursue the case, it will have to ask the House of Representatives to rule on the matter. Reynders retired from the political scene after not being re-elected as commissioner in the new team led by the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen.
