Reporter following trail of corruption in EU arrested
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard in Brussels
(Filed: 20/03/2004)
Police arrested a leading investigative journalist yesterday on the orders of the European Union, seizing his computers, address books and archive of files in a move that stunned Euro-MPs.
Hans-Martin Tillack, the Brussels correspondent for Germany's Stern magazine, said he was held for 10 hours without access to a lawyer by the Belgian police after his office and home were raided by six officers.
"They asked me to tell them who my sources were. I replied that was something I would never do. Now they have all my sensitive files, so I suppose they'll find out anyway," he said last night.
"The police said I was lucky I wasn't in Burma or central Africa, where journalists get the real treatment," he added.
Mr Tillack said the raid was triggered by a complaint from the EU's anti-fraud office, OLAF. He was accused of paying money to obtain a leaked OLAF dossier two years ago, which he denies.
The European Ombudsman has already come to his defence, issuing a harsh criticism of OLAF's campaign to silence him.
Mr Tillack, who describes himself as a "pro-European federalist", has been OLAF's most vocal critic, accusing it of covering up abuses within the EU system.
As the author of a recent book on EU corruption, he has the greatest archive of investigative files of any journalist working in Brussels.
Rest at: telegraph.co.uk |
