2 Italian suspects in EU scandal freed from house arrest

By COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press

MILAN (AP) — The wife and daughter of a former EU parliament member at the center of a bribery scandal rocking the European Union have been freed from house arrest after Belgian prosecutors revoked their arrest warrants. Antonio Panzeri’s wife, Maria Dolores Colleoni, and daughter, Silvia Panzeri, had been under house arrest on a Belgian warrant. Panzeri is a chief suspect in the cash-for-influence scandal linked to alleged influence-peddling by Qatar and Morocco. He has agreed to become an informant in exchange for a lighter sentence.  An Italian court in Brescia ruled that both the mother and the daughter could be turned over to Belgium. But before that could happen, Belgian authorities revoked the arrest warrants.