First, it was famous names on the board who quit. Now, Qatargate suspect Pier Antonio Panzeri’s human rights nongovernmental organization is facing the loss of a major donor.
That donor, the Human Rights Foundation, is looking to claw back some of the €600,000 euros it gave to Fight Impunity, the NGO run by former MEP Panzeri, who is detained on corruption charges and has now decided to cooperate with the Belgian prosecutor.
Thor Halvorssen, the CEO and founder of the foundation, sent a memo to his staff on January 14 setting out the nonprofit organization’s position and its internal response, given that it was a major donor to Fight Impunity. The foundation also gave €1 million to an NGO called No Peace Without Justice, whose Secretary General Niccolò Figà-Talamanca is also detained on preliminary criminal charges in Belgium as part of the same corruption investigation.
Halvorssen, a Venezuelan human rights activist and film producer, shared HRF’s internal memo exclusively with POLITICO.
In the memo, he wrote: “HRF’s grants were made in good faith, with counter-signed grant agreements, holding them to conduct of the highest standard.”
Halvorssen also wrote to his staff: “On December 16, 2022, we suspended our working partnerships with them pending the outcome of the legal investigation.”
Panzeri and Figà-Talamanca are among the suspects in the Belgian authorities’ probe into allegations of corruption, money laundering and participation in a criminal organization.
On Tuesday it was announced that Panzeri struck a special deal with the prosecutor in the case, meaning he will dish dirt on others in exchange for a reduced sentence. There is no suggestion that the NGOs as entities have been engaged in wrongdoing.
HRF’s attempt to distance itself from Panzeri and Figà-Talamanca comes after a long line of high-profile figures already sought to put clear water between themselves and the detainees.
Luminaries from the EU political establishment, ranging from former commissioners Dimitris Avramopoulos and Emma Bonino to College of Europe chief Federica Mogherini, quit as honorary board members of Fight Impunity after the allegations emerged in December.
Halvorssen’s memo states that part of his reason for joining forces with Fight Impunity was the high standing of its honorary board, which featured, as Halvorssen puts it, “a ‘who’s who’ of the European human rights establishment.”
‘The Dissident’
According to his memo, Halvorssen’s working relationship with Panzeri’s NGO started after the former MEP hosted a screening in late 2020 in the European Parliament of a film called “The Dissident,” which Halvorssen produced.
HRF donated to Panzeri’s outfit in order to promote that film, a documentary about the murder of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi by Saudi agents. The film accuses Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman of orchestrating and trying to cover up Khashoggi’s assassination; bin Salman has claimed Khashoggi was the victim of a rogue operation.
HRF gave three grants to Fight Impunity: €150,000 in 2020, €200,000 in 2021 and €250,000 in 2022. It gave Fight Impunity the money not only to promote “The Dissident,” but also for general work on combating dictatorships, including organizing high-profile conferences and publishing an academic journal.
Halvorssen told staff Fight Impunity confirmed to him that a “significant portion” of these funds are still in the NGO’s bank account. “We are told … that Fight Impunity will return our funds as soon as Belgian judicial authorities allow it,” he wrote.
According to Halvorssen, HRF also received assurances from Fight Impunity that its donations were used “appropriately for the purposes for which they were granted,” but he said he has requested a “full accounting” of how Panzeri’s NGO spent the funding. A lawyer for Panzeri was contacted for comment but did not reply.
HRF also hired Panzeri’s daughter Silvia as a document translator between July 2021 and the end of 2022, paying her €3,000 per month, according to the memo. She now faces extradition to Belgium from Italy and has via her lawyer denied an allegation by Belgian authorities in her arrest warrant that she knew of her father’s alleged criminal activities.
No Peace Without Justice
HRF gave two €500,000 grants to the human rights NGO No Peace Without Justice (NPWJ) in 2021 and 2022.
NPWJ differs from Fight Impunity not only because it is a much larger organization that employs more staff, but also because it has a much longer history. NPWJ dates back to a campaign in the 1990s by a left-leaning Italian political movement called the Transnational Radical Party.
No Peace Without Justice’s Secretary General is Niccolò Figà-Talamanca, who stepped aside when the Qatargate allegations emerged. He is also in prison facing preliminary charges and denies wrongdoing. A lawyer for Figà-Talamanca said she was unable to reply to the questions put to her by POLITICO in time for publication.
Just as with Fight Impunity, HRF funded No Peace Without Justice in order to promote Halvorssen’s film “The Dissident,” and also to do broader human rights work worldwide, particularly on a campaign run by NPWJ called Justice for Jamal [Khashoggi].
No Peace Without Justice and Fight Impunity shared office space in Brussels.
A spokesperson for No Peace Without Justice wrote to POLITICO: “Out of respect for the work of the magistrates, the secrecy of the investigations and the principle of the presumption of innocence, we do not deem it appropriate to issue statements.”
The EU Commission said in December that it had frozen funding to No Peace Without Justice.
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