EPP political group at PACE discusses Luca Volontè’s case on taking bribe from Azerbaijan

YEREVAN, JANUARY 23, ARMENPRESS. The political group of the European People’s Party (EPP) at PACE is discussing the issue of former Chairman of the EPP group, Italian Luca Volontè who has been charged by the Milan Prosecution on taking bribe from Azerbaijan, member of the Armenian delegation to the PACE, RPA faction MP Samvel Farmanyan writes on Facebook.

“1 hour 45 minutes… the PACE EPP political group is discussing one issue: the charge by the Milan Prosecution against former Chairman of the EPP group, Italian Luca Volontè on taking a bribe from Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijani lobby threw into a battle its all clients who have been discovered and are being discovered. We urge that the PACE must appoint a special rapporteur-investigator on this issue who in a short period of time will report to the PACE on the corruption scandal which doubted the EPP’s reputation across Europe”, Farmanyan writes.

The Milan Police and Prosecution launched a criminal case against Luca Volontè in February, 2016, who is a former MP of the Christian-Democratic Party and is the former Chairman of the EPP faction at PACE.

Volontè is accused of taking a bribe of 2.4 million Euros from Azerbaijan in 2012-2013. Instead, he was being used by official Baku in the Italian Parliament and the PACE.

The criminal case launched against Volontè is comprised of two parts: Bribery and money laundering. It is important to state that Volontè keeps silent and refuses to talk with the investigators.