Herkel Denies Suleymanov

The Chairman of the PACE Monitoring Committee, Estonian MP Andres Herkel refuted the statement of a member

of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Assembly Elkhan Suleymanov that he did not let him complete his presentation at the Committee meeting in Paris on March 20, in which he criticized the undemocratic presidential elections in Armenia.

Suleymanov said that in protest, he left the room.

In turn, Herkel told the news agency Turan, he interrupted Suleymanov’s speech not because of the content of it, but to cause him to comply with the regulations.

Herkel: "There was 12 minutes up to the end of the meeting and the work of interpreters; 4 speakers, Suleymanov first in the list. He used four minutes and I asked him to finish within two remaining minutes because there were three more speakers (from Latvia, Armenia and Austria respectively). He did not manage to finish and as chair I was obliged to stop him. He was not the first colleague whom I asked to be shorter during the five hours meeting where Armenia was rather minor item (the Rapporteurs were not present, only short overview about elections)."   --06D-