Azerbaijan affair: judgment in corruption process: probation penalty for CSU man

In the corruption process for the purchase of MP votes from Azerbaijan, former CSU member of the Bundestag Eduard Lintner has been sentenced to a prison for nine months. The Munich Higher Regional Court followed the argumentation of the Attorney General that the 80-year-old was guilty of bribing mandate. The defense had in vain for acquittal. After the judgment, Lintner indicated that it was revision. “We are seriously thinking about it,” he said.

According to the indictment, Azerbaijan is said to have tried – and successful – to influence decisions in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace) with the help of money payments in his favor. And partly with the help of Lintner, who was sitting in the Bundestag for 33 years, was temporarily parliamentary State Secretary and a pace member until 2010.

Court: Lintner acted from self -interest

According to the court, Lintner played a significant role when Azerbaijan bought the votes of a CDU member of the Bundestag. Lintner “made essential objective contributions,” said presiding judge Jochen Bösl. He had played a leading role and also pursued a self -interest in the agreement: “He had an economic interest in maintaining his business relationship with the Azerbaijanese.” Lintner himself is said to have received million sums for – but not punishable – lobbying.

In fact, Lintner in the end had granted the forwarding of Azerbaijanic cash payments to the CDU woman. This should influence decisions in the sense of Azerbaijans after Lintner himself was no longer a member of the European Council. Initial payments from Azerbaijan to the CDU politician also flowed through a company Lintners, a consultancy contract should disguise this. “That was a case of the classic purchase of votes,” said Bösl.

Lintner defended himself again after the verdict, as in the procedure: “In my opinion, I practiced lobbyism how it takes place every day in parliaments.” The facts are indisputable, “only the legal assessment, so the opinions differ”. With a view to the CDU politician, he said: “We did not forced her to do anything, but decided to convince her.”

In any case, the court assumes that Lintner was there in the crucial agreement between the CDU politician and the Azerbaijani side in autumn 2014 in a hotel in Strasbourg. At the meeting, the money payments were agreed – and the agreement was unlimited in time, that is, “until further notice”, said the presiding judge Bösl. In fact, offering or promising of an “unjustified advantage” is already punishable.

“Members have been bought”

This is crucial because the court does not consider the allegations against Lintner to be statute -barred. On the one hand, because the agreement continued to be considered. And this despite the fact that only the first cash payments flowed to the CDU woman via Lintner’s company-afterwards, cash was changed. On the other hand, the court assumes the decisive meeting in September. The defense, on the other hand, had argued that the original agreement had already been made in early 2014, and thus before tightening the membership of the MP, paragraph in the Criminal Code.

The presiding judge summarized that the CDU politician had been offered money to align her coordination behavior in the interests of the donors and campaign for the country, both in the Parliamentary Assembly of the European Council and in the Bundestag. Here a MP actually “bought”, said Bösl. “She got money to coordinate in the sense of Azerbaijan.”

In his judgment, the court also decided that a good 111,000 euros should be collected from the heirs of the CDU politician – the sum that she is said to have received at least. In addition to the probation penalty, Lintner himself received a money requirement of 10,000 euros.

Lintner saw normal lobbyism

At the end of the trial, Lintner had confirmed that he was not aware of any criminal offense, it was normal lobbyism.

Bösl said that normal lobbyism may be what Lintner had done for Azerbaijan. In fact, earlier money payments Azerbaijans on the millions were not in the criminal area for extensive lobbying according to Bösl.

The deputy chairman of the Transparency Germany organization, Margarete Bause, welcomed the judgment: “The fact that one of the parties of the Azerbaijan affair has now been held accountable is an important sign of protecting our democratic institutions and against strategic corruption,” she said. Because the buyfulness of mandate carriers by autocratic states threatens the democratic system.

Procedure separated from other ex-members

In addition to Lintner, Axel Fischer from the constituency of Karlsruhe-Land and two other accused were also charged in the process. Fischer, which is accused of bribery, denied the allegations – like Lintner at the beginning. The presumption of innocence applies. After a illness of Fischer and a longer interruption, the procedure was separated against him – this has to restart later. The proceedings against the two other co -accused were temporarily stopped against payment of money requirements.