Munich Higher Regional Court: Azerbaijan affair: Ex-MPs have to go to court

Two former Union members of the Bundestag have to answer before the Munich Higher Regional Court (OLG) because of bribery allegations in the course of the so-called Azerbaijan affair. According to a spokesman, the court has approved the charges brought by the Munich Public Prosecutor’s Office without change; the proceedings are scheduled to begin on January 16th. The “Münchner Merkur” had previously reported on it.

The accused deny the allegations

The ex-CDU parliamentarian Axel Fischer from the Karlsruhe-Land constituency is suspected of bribery, the former CSU MP Eduard Lintner from Lower Franconia of bribing elected officials, as the public prosecutor’s office announced when indicting him. The aim of the payments was to influence decisions in favor of Azerbaijan in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). Both have always denied the allegations. They are presumed innocent until a verdict is reached.

According to the investigators, Lintner, who sat in the Bundestag for 33 years and in the PACE until 2010, is said to have received “an amount several million through 19 foreign letterbox companies” through two companies by 2016. He is said to have forwarded some of these to other MPs who were supposed to influence decisions in Azerbaijan’s interests. Fischer, active as EPP group leader in PACE from 2010 to 2018, is said to have given positive speeches in the interests of Azerbaijan and forwarded confidential documents at an early stage. For this he is said to have received a bribe of 21,800 euros in 2016.

Influencing has only been punishable since 2014

According to the public prosecutor’s office, the indictment concerns payments made since September 2014. Since then, influencing the activities of members of the parliamentary assemblies of international organizations such as PACE has been punishable in Germany.

Lintner calls allegations “big nonsense”

Lintner had rejected the suspicion of bribery as “big nonsense” when he brought the charges to the German Press Agency in Munich. After his time as a member of parliament, he worked as a lobbyist to ensure that the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict region was assigned to Azerbaijan – a situation that, in his view, was “correct under international law.” The government there also paid money to his companies. But he didn’t bribe other members of parliament with this, explained Lintner.

Fischer: “The allegations are not true”

Fischer told the dpa at the indictment that the allegations against him “are not true, they only serve to prejudge him.” He was “so happy that after three years the public prosecutor’s office is finally presenting their papers to the court and stating what I am supposed to have done.” The procedure was “not only stressful and dangerous for my family and especially for my children, but it is also destroying my professional and social life,” Fischer explained at the time.

Investigations lasted several years

The Higher Regional Court also approved charges against two other defendants. The public prosecutor’s office primarily accuses them of aiding and abetting, for example by making contact or processing payments. Another former MP, who has since been investigated, has died.

The investigation dragged on for years. Lintner had already been searched in 2020, and the following year the Federal Criminal Police Office searched Fischer’s MP office in the Bundestag.