News of country\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s $2.9bn lobbying and money-laundering scheme could herald shake-up at rights body<\/p>\n
Parliamentarians at the Council of Europe have expressed \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093great concern\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d at revelations in the Guardian and other media that detail how former members of the body were paid by Azerbaijan.
\nThe revelations that former members of the Council of Europe\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s parliamentary assembly (Pace) benefited from the oil-rich country\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s international lobbying fund promise to shake up a body that is meant to set Europe\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s standards for democratic probity.
\nAfter details of leaked bank records emerged, members of Pace\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s legal affairs committee inserted a last-minute amendment to a report on human rights in Azerbaijan, which had already been scheduled for debate on Tuesday. The new text urges the government of the president, Ilham Aliyev, to investigate the Laundromat schemes without delay.
\n\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093The assembly notes with great concern reports linking the Azerbaijani government to a large money-laundering scheme,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d states the text, which was passed after sharp debates among deputies meeting in Paris on Tuesday. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093The assembly urges the Azerbaijani authorities to start an independent and impartial inquiry into these allegations without delay and, furthermore, cooperate fully with competent international authorities and bodies on this issue.\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d
\nIn an unprecedented move, a group of Pace deputies plan to issue a dissenting opinion because they think the original report \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009c drafted by a Belgian MP, Alain Destexhe \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009c skims over the problem of deep-seated corruption in the oil-rich country.
\nThe details of the payments came as an independent panel began confidential hearings into alleged corruption at Pace in Strasbourg, one of the world\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s oldest human rights bodies.
\nThe investigation into unethical practices was set up in July after Italian prosecutors accused Luca Volont\u0569\u0083\u0539\u2014, an Italian former chair of the centre-right group in Pace, of accepting millions of euros in cash from Azerbaijan in exchange for supporting its government, which has been heavily criticised for subverting elections and jailing journalists and opponents.
\nAzerbaijan, a member of the Council of Europe since 2001, has been accused of \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093caviar diplomacy\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d, using cash and gifts to buy influence \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0080\u009c charges first detailed by the European Stability Initiative thinktank in 2012. The council notably voted down a critical report on Azerbaijan\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s political prisoners in 2013.<\/p>\n
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Gerald Knaus, the ESI\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0549\u0084\u00a7s director, said it had taken years for the Volont\u0569\u0083\u0539\u2014 case to generate a reaction. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093The Pace code of conduct is more lax than that of Fifa,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d he told Le Monde, one of the team of newspapers that collaborated on the latest revelations about Azerbaijani money.
\nBank documents show Azerbaijan funnelled about $2.9bn (\u0569\u0082\u0539\u05892.2bn) out of the country via a network of secret British companies to pay supporters, lobbyists and politicians in Europe, buy luxury goods and services, and launder money for the Azerbaijani elite.
\nPieter Omtzigt, a Dutch centre-right MP who led calls for Pace to set up an investigation earlier this year, said the body was finally doing \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093serious and credible\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d work to clean up its act. But he said the Volont\u0569\u0083\u0539\u2014 case revealed a \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093systemic\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d problem within Pace, which was established after the second world war to safeguard democracy and human rights.
\n\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093It clearly points to deficiencies within the whole assembly,\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d he told the Guardian. \u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u056a\u0093In any normal parliament, if a foreign court decides that you have paid a member of parliament and that [person]\u0569\u0082\u0539\u00a0is being investigated for corruption, some kind of procedure is staring you in the face.\u0569\u00a7\u0549\u0082-\u0539\u009d<\/p>\n