Turan news agency, Azerbaijani Opposition
Sept 23 2017


 The protest rally of the National Council of Democratic Forces



Baku / 23.09.17 / Turan: Several thousand people gathered on Saturday
for a protest rally of the National Council of Democratic Forces,
which began at 15:00 at the stadium "Mehsul" in the Yasamal district
of Baku. The rally is held under the slogan "Return the money stolen
from the people!", almost $3 billion, which were illegally exported
from the country under various pretexts in recent years and spent on
bribery and lobbying the interests of the Azerbaijani authorities
abroad. These facts were revealed by the international journalistic
organization Center for the Study of Corruption and Organized Crime
(OCCRP).

In particular, it was alleged that Baku bribed the German politician
Eduard Lintner (former head of the PACE monitoring committee), the
Bulgarian politician Irina Bokova (former UNESCO Director-General) and
Italian politician Luca Bolonte (former vice-president of PACE).

Lintner led the commission of observers from Germany in the
presidential elections in Azerbaijan in 2013, Bokova held the photo
exhibition "Azerbaijan - the space of tolerance" in the same year. In
turn, Bolton received money to prevent the adoption of the resolution
of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe on political
prisoners in Azerbaijan, Radio Liberty reports.

The OCCRP argue that most of the funds that the Azerbaijani
authorities brought to the accounts of fictitious British companies
belonged to Azerbaijani banks, including the state-owned International
Bank of Azerbaijan. In addition, the Russian state company
Rosoboronexport transferred $ 29 million to the "front man from
Azerbaijan" in 2012. Two million dollars, presumably, went to bribes,
the rest of the amount, it is claimed, went to the structures
connected with high-ranking officials of Azerbaijan.

However, the Azerbaijani government rejected all these accusations,
saying that they are being spread by the Armenian lobby and
philanthropist and businessman George Soros.

The opposition of Azerbaijan considers the OCCRP report to be real and
objective and requires the government to give explanations. -02D-