A group of civil society activists took a collective appeal to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) members, on the eve of the winter session of the Assembly.
They urged the Assembly to investigate the facts of political corruption at PACE, and which had become known after the launching of a criminal case in Italy against the Assembly former Vice President Luca Volonte, and the publicizing of the European Stability Initiative report: The European Swamp (Caviar Diplomacy Part 2), according to Contact.az news agency of Azerbaijan.
The appeal recalls that Volonte is being investigated by the Milan public prosecutor’s office for allegedly accepting €2.39 million in bribes from two Azerbaijani members of PACE, Elkhan Suleymanov and Muslim Mammadov.
The petitioners called on PACE to immediately expel these two members of the Azerbaijani delegation to the Assembly, pending a full investigation.
Furthermore, they urged PACE to suspend the voting rights of the Azerbaijani delegation, which they believe were completely aware of the bribery but failed to take a step to stop it.
