The Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe demands the punishment of corrupt deputies

Baku / 07.05.18 / Turan: Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Foreign Minister of Denmark, Anders Samuelsen, sent a letter to PACE President Michele Nicoletti in connection with the report of the Independent Investigation Group, published two weeks ago, on the facts of corruption among European deputies. The "New York Times" writes about it, the correspondent of which got acquainted with the text of the message.

The article reads that a number of PACE members, including former President Pedro Agramunt, are charged with getting money, jewelry and paying various services for them to act in favor of the Azerbaijani authorities.

Samuelsen notes that PACE is delaying with the punishment of the defendants of the report.

He expressed concern that some parliamentarians are trying to divert attention so that no steps are taken after the report.

The Chairman of the Committee of Ministers called on the PACE to act "immediately and decisively", otherwise the European Ministers will instead "consider appropriate steps".

The corruption investigation was also highlighted by another Spanish conservative politician, Spanish Secretary of Defense, Agustín Condé. Other politicians accused of corruption are Austria, Belgium, Great Britain, Poland, Romania and Azerbaijan.

More recently, Italian authorities have opened a criminal case against former Italian representative Lucas Volonti and a member of the assembly, accusing him of receiving more than 2 million euros from two former members of the Azerbaijani delegation at the meeting.

It should be noted that on April 22, a 219-page "Report of the Independent Investigative Body on Corruption in PACE" was published on the PACE website, created by the decision of the Assembly's Bureau.

It is reported, the investigation was concentrated exclusively on Azerbaijan, since it was its representatives who carried out an open systemic bribery.

The "independent investigative body" presented evidence of corruption schemes against 17 existing and former PACE deputies.

In addition to the Italian Luke Volonte, who is under investigation in Italy, former PACE President Pedro Agramunt and two other Spaniards Augustine Conde and Jordi Hukla, the head of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE, Samad Seyidov, former members of the Azerbaijani delegation to PACE Elkhan Suleymanov and Muslim Mamedov, Finn Jaakko Laakso, Belgians Stef Goris and Alain Desteks, Norwegian Karina Voldets, Swede Goran Lindblad, Romanian Caesar Preda, Austrian Stefan Schennak, British Robert Walter, Polish Tadeusz Ivinsky, German Eduard Lintner.

On April 26, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution on the report of an independent investigation group on corruption in this organization.

The Assembly called on the European Parliament and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to take advantage of the recommendations of the Corruption Investigation Team and invited the political groups that nominate candidates for such steering committees as a monitoring committee, in accordance with the procedure chosen by the ECHR judges "to review their practice."

National delegations and political groups, as well as the governments of the PACE member states, are instructed to study the conclusions of the report on their deputies and report back to the end of the year on the measures taken, proceeding from the principle of individual political responsibility.-16d-