The joy of Ali Hasanov is premature

Baku/15.02.18/Turan: The joy of Milli Mejlis MP Elkhan Suleymanov and presidential assistant, Ali Hasanov, because of lifting charges from the Italian MP, Luka Volonte, was premature. Thus, the allegations of money laundering were lifted, but charges of corruption allegations remain, and he is still under investigation, wrote on his page in Facebook an investigative journalist, a member of the international journalistic research network OCCRP, Khadija Ismayilova. Luka Volonte is a figurant of the international scandal "caviar diplomacy" - the investigation of the international NGO "European Stability Initiative". Volonte is accused of receiving 2.3 million euros from Azerbaijan, which were spent on bribing a number of PACE deputies in order to fail the report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan in January 2013. In 2016, the Milan prosecutor's office launched an investigation against Volonte, raising charges against him. However, the other day Milli Majlis deputy Elkhan Suleymanov, and then Ali Hasanov, assistant to the president, happily announced that all charges had been dropped from Volonte. Hasanov even threatened those who "slandered" Azerbaijan. However, Ismayilova wrote today, only charges of money laundering have been dropped from Volonte.

This means that the court confirmed that after the laundering he did not return money received from the people close to the government of Azerbaijan. The charge of accepting bribes remains in force, and Volonter was deprived of immunity, Ismayilova writes. "This is a PR disaster. Threatening the journalists, and speaking lies about the court, they simply reminded foreign media about bribes and gave another reason to talk about corruption in Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe. It's very unprofessional," Ismayilova wrote in connection with the "accusatory" statements by Suleymanov and Hasanov.

The fact that Volonter is charged with corruption was also confirmed by his lawyers. -06D-