During the PACE winter session, parallel to the plenary sessions, a discussion was held on political prisoners in Azerbaijan: “Following the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Ten years after the rejection of Strässer report. Most of the Armenian delegation in PACE was also present at this discussion, while not a single delegate from Azerbaijan was present. To remind you, in 2013, 125 deputies of the Assembly voted against the report prepared by the rapporteur on the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, Christoph Strässer.
Only six represented Azerbaijan; the rest were representatives of the European Union and post-Soviet states. A big corruption scandal was revealed on this occasion, how Azerbaijan had bribed the PACE delegates. To remind you, former Council of Europe deputy PACE member Luca Volontè was sentenced to four years in Milan in 2021 on corruption charges. PACE deputy Pieter Omtzigt stated that what happened was not enough and said: “We have uncovered corruption cases regarding political prisoners in Azerbaijan, but I think we should strengthen control and responsibility mechanisms. Our organization was created as a result of the Second World War so that we would never again have war, genocide, or political prisoners and have an open, free, democratic society.
However, it did not happen like that. There are political prisoners in Azerbaijan; there are also political prisoners in Turkey, and there are political prisoners in Russia. If you record that there are political prisoners, but after that, you don’t take any practical steps, you are saying that it is normal. We have to stop doing that.” PACE deputy Pieter Omtzigt stated that what happened was not enough and said: “We have uncovered corruption cases regarding political prisoners in Azerbaijan, but I think we should strengthen control and responsibility mechanisms. Our organization was created as a result of the Second World War so that we would never again have war, genocide, or political prisoners and have an open, free, democratic society. However, it did not happen like that. There are political prisoners in Azerbaijan; there are also political prisoners in Turkey, and there are political prisoners in Russia. If you record that there are political prisoners, but after that, you don’t take any practical steps, you are saying that it is normal. We have to stop doing that.” Former PACE deputy, and author of the report, Christoph Strässer, said that when he was preparing the report, he was never allowed to visit Azerbaijan. At the same time, PACE delegates visited Azerbaijan many times.
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“The majority vote adopted the report in the committee. And when the Assembly did not accept it, everyone asked: what is the problem? From that vote, it was clear what was happening. Azerbaijan did not “buy” votes only with money; other means were used. When they voted against the resolution I authored, Samad Seyidov stood up and announced that this was a good day for PACE because PACE does not belong to Mr. Strässer but is our PACE.” The head of the European Stability Initiative, Gerald Knaus, emphasized that the investigation should be carried out to the end because many people in this case, who took bribes from Azerbaijan or participated in these transactions, are still at large. Giving names of PACE deputies bribed by Azerbaijan, he said: “For example, there was a conservative Spanish deputy who was always ready to go to Azerbaijan. Or Pedro Agramunt prepared a report on political prisoners in Azerbaijan, which was a trap so that the Assembly would vote in favor of that document rather than Mr. Strässer‘s info. He told me that the government of Azerbaijan allegedly promised him that all the prisoners would be released. Immediately after his imprisonment, the General Secretary of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland , visited Azerbaijan and stated that this was a good start for the presidency of Azerbaijan without saying anything about the imprisonment.
At that time, PACE was even more corrupt than FIFA. Italian prosecutors discovered a suspicious transaction of 2.4 million euro, but that person even admitted that a contract of 10 million euro was signed with him. Gerald Knaus noted with regret that many persons involved in these crimes have not come to the surface. He assured that their investigations had revealed hundreds of persons involved in this crime, but many of them have escaped responsibility. The representatives of the opposition party of Azerbaijan led by Eldar Mammadov also took part in the discussion. One of them declared: “I know many political prisoners personally; they are my friends. Thanks to Mr. Strässer, I remember our committee was in favor of discussing that resolution. These issues should always be on the PACE agenda. You can always be sure of the support of the opposition sector of Azerbaijan, the political society.”
Tatev HARUTYUNYAN
Strasbourg
