Council of Europe has been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption, in particular vote-rigging in favor of Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime.

Dutch MP Pieter Omtzigt is urging PACE leaders to launch a “deep, thorough investigation by an independent panel” that makes its findings public, The Guaridan reported.

“We see a lot of suspicious outcomes of votes and procedures on Azerbaijan,” Omtzigt told the Guardian.

According to The Guardian article, the observers have repeatedly raised questions concerning PACE’s weak response to ballot-box stuffing and human rights violations in Azerbaijan, and all this resulted in a scandal over Italian politician Luca Volontè who is suspected of taking a 2.39 million euro in bribes from Baku.

Overall, 324 PACE parliamentarians have signed a written declaration saying “recent, serious and credible allegations of grave misconduct by some ot its members risk undermining public confidence in the Parliamentary Assembly's integrity.”

Gerald Knaus, the chairman of the European Stability Initiative, said the Council of Europe’s parliamentary leaders failed to ask questions about “open and obvious” suspicions of corruption, while rosy picture of Azerbaijan’s elections painted by monitors from PACE should have raised questions years ago.

The author of the Guardian article noted that Spanish delegate, head of PACE Pedro Agramunt initially resisted the inquiry, but later agreed to set up an investigation “after strongly-worded complaints from a dozen countries, including Switzerland, Belgium, the Baltic and Nordic states.”

According to the author or the article, Agramunt was not immediately available for comment. It is also mentioned that Council of Europe Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland stands for “zero tolerance on corruption”.