The Munich prosecutor’s office charged Axel Fischer and Eduard Lintner with corruption and bribery of politicians.
The investigation believes that they received money for lobbying for Azerbaijan’s interests in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.
Lintner was a member of the German-Azerbaijani Forum lobbying Baku’s interests in the Bundestag. The Prosecutor General’s Office accuses Lintner of receiving several million euros from Baku through intermediaries.
The two companies he founded concluded contracts with state-owned enterprises of Azerbaijan providing for monthly payments for some services. The money was also allegedly used to bribe German and Belgian politicians.
One of the suspects in the corruption scandal was also the late Bundestag deputy Karin Strentz. The investigation revealed that Lintner paid 150 thousand euros to Strentz. That, in turn, guaranteed that in 2015 and 2016 the Council of Europe would make the decisions needed by Baku.
Fischer also agreed with the representative of Azerbaijan that he would act in the Council of Europe “on the instructions and in the interests” of this country. He made positive assessments about Azerbaijan and handed over secret documents to the representatives of Baku and received 22,000 euros for it.
The European Stability Initiative established that Lintner formed a delegation to observe the presidential elections in Azerbaijan in 2013. Members of the delegation praised the elections, while independent observers documented numerous frauds. Two weeks later, Lintner received 61,000 euros from Azerbaijan.
The investigation lasted more than four years. During the investigation, 20 sites were searched, including the offices of Bundestag deputies.
