Azerbaijani MPs Accused of Buying Votes in PACE

The former deputy chairman of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly the Italian MP Luca Volonte is accused of receiving 2.39 million euros for a vote in favor of the Azerbaijani government on the Strasser List. As stated in the article of the newspaper Il Fatto Quotidiano, Milan prosecutors opened a criminal case on the fact.

According to the indictment on charges of corruption and money laundering, the vote in favor of Azerbaijan is one of the results of bribes obtained by the Vice-chairman of PACE and a member of the Italian Council in millions of US dollars to support "political positions of a foreign state."

Christopher Strasser, PACE rapporteur on political prisoners prepared a list of 85 persons in the Azerbaijani prisons, which he qualified as political prisoners. The Azerbaijani authorities did not recognize this list and did everything to make the Strasser List not approved. On the vote in PACE on January 23, 2013 the list was rejected by 128 votes against and 79 in favor.

The money came from the name of the telecommunications company Baktelekom to the accounts of the company LGV and Novae Terrae Foundation. In 2012-2014, this was done by 18 transfers on behalf of the British Polux Management LP Company and Polux management lp and lp Hilux service through branch of Estonian Danske Bank.

Volonte is accused of taking bribes "for himself and for third parties" from Azerbaijani deputies in PACE Elkhan Suleymanov and Muslum Mammadov, as well as other unidentified Azerbaijani politicians to carry out their public functions in the interests of "the government of Azerbaijan."

The lawyers of Volonte believe the allegations are not substantiated. The lawyers Pistoccini Alessandro and Domenico Pulitano hope that their work will prevent the unnecessary process.

According to Article 12.1 of the Criminal Code, "citizens of the Azerbaijan Republic and stateless persons permanently living in the Azerbaijan Republic, who have committed a crime (action or inaction) outside the Azerbaijan Republic, shall be subject to criminal liability under this Code if the act is considered a crime in the Azerbaijan Republic and the State on whose territory it was committed, and if these persons have not been convicted in a foreign country."

Article 312.2 (bribery of an official for the commission of deliberately illegal actions (inaction)) of the Criminal Code shall be punished by a fine of two thousand manats (about 2,550 dollars) to four thousand manats (about 5,110 dollars) or imprisonment for a term of four to eight years with confiscation of property.

Law enforcement bodies of Azerbaijan do not comment on the accusations of the Italian prosecutors.   -0-