Substitutions in the composition of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE

Baku / 04.06.18 / Turan: Changes have been made in the delegation of Azerbaijan to PACE: it includes deputies Chingiz Ganizade and Nagif Khamzayev. They will replace Vusal Huseynov and Rovshan Rzayev, appointed by the head of the State Migration Service and the State Committee of Civil Defense, respectively, Turan was told by Chingiz Ganizade, confirming that the newly appointed members will take part in the June session of the PACE.

In January chnages were made in the makeup of the Azerbaijani delegation: instead of Elkhan Suleymanov, Muslim Mammadov and Elshan Musayev were appointed Asim Mollazade, Ulviya Agayeva and Elshad Hasanov.

Elkhan Suleymanov and Muslim Mammadov, were involved in a scandalous corruption scandal in PACE. Their names were included in the report of the Independent Investigation Team appointed by the PACE Bureau as persons involved in bribing the deputies of the assembly for making decisions in favor of the Azerbaijani authorities. They refused to give evidence to the commission. After that, they stopped going to Strasbourg.

A little later, the head of the delegation, Samad Seyidov, appeared on the list of corrupt officials. On May 15, the PACE Procedures Committee applied sanctions against 4 members of the assembly, including Seyidov. Within two years he will not be able to be a rapporteur in the PACE, participate in election monitoring, be elected chairman of the committee and subcommittees, represent the assembly in third-party events, send inquiries to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. He can only participate in the work of the assembly.

It should be noted that the new member of the delegation, Khamzayev, once scoffed at calling Mammadamin Rasulzade, one of the founders of the Azerbaijan People's Republic (1918-20), "a traitor". This caused public indignation and censure, after which Khamzayev stated that his words were distorted. -16D--