Armenian delegation and Azerbaijani NGOs treat positively fight on corruption at PACE

The resignation of Pedro Agramunt, the President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) is predefined and will be a good precedent for fighting corruption, Azerbaijani non-governmental organizations (NGOs) have stated. The Armenian delegation has welcomed the set up of a commission for investigating corruption and called on for the resignation of Agramunt.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the PACE MPs demanded from Agramunt to resign after his meeting the Syrian President Bashar al-Assad and visiting the Russian military base, as well as because the so-called "caviar scandal" associated with Azerbaijan. On April 28, the PACE Bureau expressed a vote of no confidence to Agramunt.

Arpine Ovannisyan, the head of the Armenian delegation and a Vice-President of the PACE, has noted that Agramunt's actions were contrary to the PACE's values.

According to Emin Guseinov, the executive director of the Azerbaijani Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), the corruption scandal in the PACE flared up after in 2016 the Milano Prosecutor's Office launched an inquiry against Luca Volonte, a former vice president of the PACE and Italian MP thereof.

"He was suspected of receiving bribes from Azerbaijani MPs for failing, at the PACE session of the report by Christophe Strasser on political prisoners in Azerbaijan," Mr Guseinov has explained.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.