Angela Merkel on the corruption of deputies who received money from Azerbaijan

Baku/20.04.21/Turan: In 2018, a scandal erupted in the Council of Europe around the facts of bribery of a group of European deputies by Azerbaijan ("Azerbaijani Laundromat"). Among them were deputies from Germany. What did the German authorities do to clarify the circumstances of this case? This question asked on April 20 at the PACE session to German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

“The scandal connected with Azerbaijan was investigated in the Bundestag; this is a very unpleasant event and requires a detailed investigation. Deputies Shtenz and Linder were punished. We studied all the documents and all the public figures involved in the scandal were criticized,” she said, answering a question from an Icelandic MP, rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan Thorhildur Sunna ÆVARSDÓTTIR.

* In March 2019, the PACE Legal and Human Rights Committee published a new report with recommendations entitled "Laundromats: Responding to New Challenges in the International Fight against Organized Crime, Corruption and Money Laundering."

In January 2019, the leadership of the Bundestag punished MP Karin Strenz for violating parliamentary rules for declaring foreign income received from Azerbaijan. In January 2020, prosecutors in Frankfurt launched an investigation into Karin Strenz and former Christian Democratic Party member Eduard Lintner. Strenz was deprived of parliamentary immunity, and the police conducted a search in her house. -02В-