A senior Belgian police official has been suspended from duty amid allegations of leaks in the high-profile Qatargate corruption investigation, a police source familiar with the matter confirmed to Euractiv following a report by Belgian daily La Libre.
Philippe Noppe, head of the federal police’s Central Office for Serious and Organised Crime (OCDEFO), was informed on Monday that he had been suspended, a senior Belgian police official told Euractiv. Belgian police and Noppe did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
La Libre reports that the decision is linked to the Qatargate affair, a corruption scandal that has shaken the European Parliament since late 2022. Leaked police documents triggered an internal probe after key suspects accused unidentified individuals of sharing confidential information, breaching the secrecy of the investigation.
While no one has been convicted, the probe has already caused upheaval within the Belgian police. In February 2025, inspectors searched the office and home of Hugues Tasiaux, then acting head of the Central Office for the Repression of Corruption (OCRC), another police body which played a key role in the Qatargate investigation.
Tasiaux was later charged with violating professional secrecy and subsequently suspended, but told Euractiv at the time he was “very serene” as he denied wrongdoing.
Belgian ex-anticorruption chief charged over secrecy breach
Belgian police officer Hugues Tasiaux, until recently head of the country’s anti-corruption unit, has been…
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