ArmInfo. The Bundestag of Germany on January 30 deprived parliamentary immunity of the deputy from the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) Karin Strenz from Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. She is accused of taking a bribe of at least 22 thousand euros to lobby for the interests of Azerbaijan in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
According to Deutsche Welle, last year the German parliament fined Strents 20 thousand euros. In connection with the investigation into Strentz, about 100 employees of the prosecutor's office, the Federal Criminal Office and the Belgian police searched the premises on 16 eve of the night: in the Bundestag's office of the deputy, her personal apartment in Berlin, as well as in the premises, offices and law firms in Berlin, the federal states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and Bavaria, as well as in Belgium. Together with her in the case is the ex-deputy of the Bundestag from the Bavarian Christian Social Union (CSU), the former parliamentary state secretary to the Minister of the Interior, Eduard Lintner.
The Bundestag deprived the immunity of the leader of the right-wing populist faction Lintner, according to the prosecutor's office, from 2008 to 2016 he received from Azerbaijan about 4 million euros through shell companies in the UK, which had accounts in banks in the Baltic countries. He redirected a significant part of this money, minus his remuneration, to individual PACE members who were supposed to speak positively about the elections in Azerbaijan and oppose the demands for the release of political prisoners in this country.
In this case, there is also a third suspect, on the bribery and lobbying of the interests of Azerbaijan, whose name the investigation has not yet disclosed. He is accused of creating a shell company and opening bank accounts through his law office to transfer money from Azerbaijan to bribe PACE members. On Thursday, January 30, the Bundestag deprived parliamentary immunity of the leader of the faction of the right-wing populist party "Alternative for Germany" (AdG) Alexander Gauland. The decision was made at the request of the Frankfurt am Main Prosecutor's Office, seeking permission to search Gauland for suspicion of tax evasion. Frankfurt prosecutors ordered searches of the apartments in Gauland at his place of residence in Frankfurt am Main and Potsdam. The policy is blamed for the incorrect preparation of tax returns on their income for several years.
Recall that suspicions against Karin Strents appeared in 2017 during a corruption scandal in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). In particular, her name is mentioned in a report published in April 2018 by a group of independent experts on bribes for lobbying for the interests of Baku in Europe. The document claims that a key person involved in the corruption scandal, former Bundestag deputy Eduard Lintner hired her to work through his Line M-Trade consulting company, which was funded by Baku and lobbying for the interests of Azerbaijan. Strents later stated that she did not know the source of the company's financing. In connection with suspicions, in early 2018 she was expelled from the Bundestag delegation to PACE.