Airport official to face court over Qatar favours
A supervisor at Kennedy Airport in New York took bribes and broke security rules to let Qatar park its planes overnight during the UN General Assembly over the past five years, prosecutors say.
Marlene Mizzi, 54, was indicted on Wednesday on charges of receiving a reward for official misconduct.
Joseph Jourieh, 58, a travel co-ordinator who works on behalf of Qatar’s permanent mission to the UN, was also charged.
He is accused of giving Ms Mizzi meals, limousine rides and a watch.
They face up to four years in prison if convicted.
Ms Mizzi was suspended in June from her job as assistant duty supervisor at the airport. Prosecutors said she worked for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, the public agency that ran the airport, for 35 years.
“Today’s indictment will serve notice to all Port Authority employees that the agency will not tolerate violations of the public trust or any other corrupt acts,” Port Authority inspector general Michael Nestor said.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood said Ms Mizzi did not have proper approval to make exceptions to a rule prohibiting foreign state aircraft from parking overnight.
Airport rules require that foreign state aircraft taking officials to the General Assembly depart within two hours of arrival.
Ms Mizzi allowed several Qatari planes to stay overnight, sometimes for days, the charges said.
Prosecutors said she also received bottles of wine and other gifts for giving special treatment to other countries.
They did not identify the other countries involved.
The Port Authority said its ethics code includes a zero-tolerance policy banning payments, gifts, meals or transport from anyone doing business or likely to do business with the agency.
Former Port Authority chairman David Samson was sentenced last year to home confinement for pressuring United Airlines to restart a money-losing flight to South Carolina, near where he has a second home.
The flight was derisively called the “Chairman’s Flight”.