Monday, April 23 2018 11:39

ArmInfo.The PACE confirmed the corruption component in  the actions of Azerbaijan, which could influence the decisions taken  concerning the country in the Parliamentary Assembly.

"A group of investigators established that there was a group of  people working for the PACE in the interest of Azerbaijan, it was  found that several members and former members of the PACE acted  contrary to the ethnic standards of the PACE," said former judge and  president of the European Court of Human Rights Nicholas Bratza in  Strasbourg , who led a team of investigators created to clarify the  circumstances and the perpetrators.

Meanwhile, PACE President Michele Nicoletti expressed his conviction  that the report is primarily important because it has recommendations  for improving and prevention of such cases in the future. "We decided  to publish this report, we will also inform the speakers of the  national parliaments of the 47 member countries of the Council of  Europe about the results of the investigation, so that they made  appropriate decisions with respect to these persons," the PACE  president said. In this context, he added that those who mentioned in  the report, can be sanctioned.  In particular, the report mentions  the valuable gifts that were given to PACE members during their  visits to Azerbaijan. According to the investigation, some of these  gifts were declared according to the rules of the PACE.

Recall that in January last year, the Assembly created an independent  body to investigate allegations of "corruption and promotion of  interests" brought against some current and former members of the  PACE.  The day before, a report was published, which includes 198  pages.

I recalled that the second year the case is about a corruption  scandal around the PACE. According to the journalistic investigation,  the authorities of Azerbaijan used fictitious companies in the UK for  laundering 2.9 billion dollars. This money was used to bribe European  politicians who lobbied Azerbaijan's interests in the EU and blocked  resolutions condemning human rights violations in the country. In the  summer of 2016, the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera reported  that the Milan prosecutor's office accused the well- known Italian  politician Luca Volonta, the former head of the European People's  Party faction in PACE, of receiving major bribes from the  representatives of Azerbaijan. And in April this year, The Guardian  revealed details of the corruption scandal in PACE with the  participation of Baku. Then The Guardian reported that two people  with high level experience of the Parliamentary Assembly of the  Council of Europe (PACE) told The Guardian that they believe that  Azerbaijan offered its members bribes for votes. 

This body consists of 324 delegates from national parliaments and  meets four times a year in Strasbourg.  <Arif Mammadov, a former  Azerbaijani diplomat who became a dissident, said that members of the  delegation from this oil-rich country in the Council of Europe had 30  million euros to lobby in the institutions of this organization,  including the [Parliamentary] Assembly of the Council of Europe. He  added that "everyone" in the Azerbaijani delegation heard this  number, although "it was never recorded, it was said that this money  was for bribes to members of delegations and PACE as a whole,"  Mammadov said.