Jagland urged Agramunt to urgently create a commission to investigate corruption in PACE

On March 24, Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjorn Jagland sent a letter to PACE President Pedro Agramunt urging him not to postpone the issue of establishing an independent external commission to investigate corruption among PACE deputies.

As it became known Turan from sources in the Council of Europe Jagland expressed surprise that s on 10 march  the Bureau could not reach a conclusion   regarding  the setting up of this investigation body and the item  will now  be on the agenda  of its  next meeting on 24 April.

Further, Jagland calls on Agramunt to use his position in order not to postpone the resolution of this issue and to create an independent commission to investigate the facts of corruption as soon as possible.

At the January session of the PACE the question was raised about the bribery of the Italian MP Luca Volonte by the deputies from Azerbaijan. According to the materials of the Italian prosecutor's office, Volonte received 3.9 million Euros for efforts to defect the report of the German deputy Christopher Strasser about political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

It should also be recalled that before being elected president of PACE, Agramunt was PACE rapporteur on Azerbaijan and was repeatedly accused by human rights defenders of serving the interests of the Azerbaijani government.-02D-