PACE to Discuss the Report on Corruption Scandal Involving Aliyev's Daughters

• 06.06.2019, 19:22
•  Europe,  Region,  World

The Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe published a report on the investigation into the murder of Daphne Caruana Galicia, a well-known journalist from Malta, who investigated corruption facts of politicians and government officials in her country and abroad. The draft report, which will be submitted to the summer session of the PACE, refers to "the inability of the Maltese authorities to bring suspected murderers to justice or to identify the customers."

According to the investigation, the key object of corruption in Malta was the private Bank Pilatus, many of whose clients were "politically significant persons", which increases the risk of money laundering. Among them were companies owned by the daughters of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and one of the Azerbaijani ministers.

This is not the first international anti-corruption investigation, which involves the family and the closest circle of the President of Azerbaijan. So, in 2016, thanks to the “Panama Papers”, the offshore activities of the Aliyev family and the amount of income received were disclosed.

The ruling elite of Azerbaijan found itself in another scandal in 2017, when, as a result of an investigation by the British newspaper The Guardian, it turned out that during 2012-2014, representatives of the ruling elite of Azerbaijan, through fictitious British companies, took out $ 3 billion from the country, which was used to bribe various European officials, and acquisition of expensive things. This investigation is known as the “Azerbaijan Laundry.”

By the way, Azerbaijan’s policy of bribing various foreign officials was already on the PACE agenda. On  June 3^rd, the trial of the former Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Council of Europe, Luca Volonte, began in Milan. He is accused of receiving large bribes from the Azerbaijani authorities in order to bribe other PACE deputies.

Meanwhile, by and large, these investigations do not really bother the Azerbaijani authorities, since Aliyev “keeps” his citizens away from such topics, and the international community does not take any practical measures on this matter.