14 Former PACE Members Sanctioned Over Corruption Allegations

YEREVAN (Armradio) — The PACE Committee on Rules of Procedure has found that fourteen former members of the Assembly named in the report of the Independent Investigation Body looking into allegations of corruption within the Assembly have breached its Code of Conduct, and ruled that they should be deprived of the right to access Council of Europe and Parliamentary Assembly premises for life.

This was the third hearing of the Rules Committee concerning the conduct of individual members, using powers in the Assembly’s Code of Conduct, and forms part of the Assembly’s follow-up to the report of the Investigation Body.

Two previous hearings took place on 25 April and 15 May 2018. The committee will be continuing its hearings of PACE serving and former members at its next meeting.

In a report published on April 15, 2018, the Committee on Rules of Procedure said that in their activities concerning Azerbaijan, several members and former members of PACE had acted contrary to the PACE ethical standards.

The Investigation Body established that various gifts had been received by the PACE MPs and members of the secretariat engaged in activities relating to Azerbaijan.

Furthermore, the Investigation Body established the facts concerning two principal forms of the use of financial means to influence PACE’s work concerning Azerbaijan. The first concerned the remunerated lobbying activities performed by a number of former PACE MPs.

The second concerned the actual use of money and other corruptive activities as a means of influencing various activities which were directly or indirectly seen as being in favour of Azerbaijan.