Civil society calls PACE reestablish mandate of a rapporteur of political prisoners in Azerbaijan

About 60 activists of the civil society of Azerbaijan have sent a letter to the members of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe with request to take a measures against the former Vice President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), Mr. Luca Volonte, who is being investigated by the Milan public prosecutor’s office for allegedly accepting €2.39m in bribes from two members of PACE, Mr. Elkhan Suleymanov and Mr. Muslim Mammadov, in exchange for his efforts to thwart the 2013 critical resolution on political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

“We urge you to immediately expel the two members of the Azerbaijani delegation accused of bribing other members (Elkhan Suleymanov and Muslim Mammadov), pending a full investigation. Furthermore, we urge you to suspend the voting rights of the entire Azerbaijani delegation, which we believe were completely aware of the bribery but failed to take a single step to stop it.

2013 vote on Mr. Christoph Strässer’s resolution may not be considered legitimate. As a matter of urgency, PACE should immediately re-establish the mandate of a special rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan – a credible member of PACE with a solid record of scrutinising and reporting on human rights abuses – to write an objective report, in cooperation with the Council of Europe INGO conference experts and internationally-recognised rights watchdogs.

On 18 November 2016, the highest court in Azerbaijan considered the appeal by the Azerbaijani political prisoner and opposition leader Mr. Ilgar Mammadov against his seven-year long prison sentence and ruled to uphold it. The continued illegal imprisonment of Mr. Mammadov constitutes a blatant breach of Azerbaijan’s explicit legal obligations, and is an affront to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, which has repeatedly demanded that Azerbaijan comply with the 2014 decision by the European Court of Human Rights and immediately and unconditionally release Ilgar Mammadov.  Contrary to the Committee of Ministers, which is now considering legal action against Azerbaijan, PACE has failed to take a decisive action against such a flagrant and persistent violation of the Convention and of the principles on which it is founded, including respect for the binding judgments of the European Court of Human Rights.

To this end, we call on PACE to eliminate any trace of corruption and misconduct within the Pan-European human rights organisation, and to demonstrate a strong and consolidated stance on human rights violations in Azerbaijan. Specifically, we urge you do the following:

• Immediately expel the two members of the Azerbaijani delegation accused of bribing other members (Elkhan Suleymanov and Muslim Mammadov), pending a full investigation.
• Suspend the voting rights of the entire Azerbaijani delegation, pending a full investigation into the corruption and until Ilgar Mammadov and other political prisoners have been released.
• Re-establish the mandate of a special rapporteur on political prisoners in Azerbaijan – a credible member of PACE with a solid record of scrutinising and reporting on human rights abuses – to write an objective report in cooperation with the Council of Europe INGO conference experts and internationally-recognised rights watchdogs.
• Call for an urgent debate on the corruption scam within the Council of Europe; appoint a special ethical commission to investigate alleged involvement of the other members of PACE in the bribery case. -02D-