Luka Volunte, an Italian politician and former head of the European People’s Party in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), received a bribe from the Azerbaijani government amounting to 2 million 390 thousand Euros for carrying out political activities in the interests of the Azerbaijani authorities. This is written by the site “La Provincia” with reference to the influential Italian newspaper “Corriere della Sera”.
According to the information, in January 2013, during the voting, PACE vetoed a report on 85 political prisoners in Azerbaijan. In particular, the activities of the Italian politician Luke Volonte contributed to this. The Milan prosecutor’s office accused him of receiving large bribes from the representatives of Azerbaijan, as well as money laundering.
Thus, it is emphasized that in the period from 2012 to 2014, money was transferred to the account of the politician from the accounts of the Azerbaijani telecommunications company “Baktelecom” through 18 bank transfers.
In the prosecutor’s office Volonte stated that he had received money “for himself and for third parties” from political figure Elkhan Suleymanov for the support of the government of Azerbaijan. It is noted that during the meetings in Azerbaijan and Strasbourg, Volonte promised to “support the political position of a foreign state” for money and “pursued short-term and long-term political initiatives” in the interests of official Baku. The defense of Volunte, categorically refuted by the prosecutor’s office of Milan, by calling them unreasonable.
It should be noted that previously it was repeatedly reported about the bribery of foreign politicians and lobbying organizations by the Azerbaijani authorities to promote their interests abroad. Thus, according to the American magazine “Foreign Policy”, registration documents of the government of Azerbaijan and its American lobbyists show that the country has spent at least $ 4 million on lobbying for only 2014.
It was noted that in February 2015 the Azerbaijani embassy increased the monthly fee of its main lobbyist, “Podesta Group”, from $ 50,000 to $ 75,000. The registration documents of “Podesta Group” disclosed hundreds of contacts with the offices of the Congress, executive agencies, media and research centers. Subsequently, Azerbaijan succeeded in “buying influence” in Washington, and many congressmen began spreading statements in favor of Azerbaijan. At the same time, none of these statements were mentioned the documented violations of the regime of the Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in relation to his own citizens.
Source: laprovinciadicomo.it