Former PACE President and several deputies suspected of corruption
At a meeting in Paris on Tuesday, May 15, the Standing Committee of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), chose a punishment for former PACE President Pedro Agramunt, as well as deputies suspected of corruption, as reported by the Chairman of the Ukrainian delegation to the PACE, Volodymyr Ariev, to Evopeyskaya Pravda.
According to Ariev, the committee agreed there was a need to punish the deputies, despite the fact that their fault has not yet been legally proven. The decision was based on a report by PACE’s external investigation group on systemic corruption.
"The Standing Committee recognized Pedro Agramunt, Jordi Shukla, Cezar Preda and Samad Seyidov as guilty of serious violation of the Assembly’s Code of Conduct," Ariev said.
According to PACE regulations, the Regulatory Committee has the power to impose sanctions on non-violating deputies without coordinating with the Assembly.
The most stringent restrictions will be imposed against the former PACE President Pedro Agramunt.
"All four deputies will be deprived of all the rights provided by the rules, except for the right to vote and the right to file draft documents. Sanctions were introduced against Agramunt for ten years, [and] against the rest for two years," Ariev said.
The committee's decision has not yet been published, but other participants in the meeting confirmed this information in a conversation with the publication. According to one of the sources, Agramunt, who ignores most PACE-organized events, attended the meeting himself. He was allegedly extremely outraged by the report, which came to the conclusion that he was highly likely to be involved in corruption.
PACE President Pedro Agramunt wrote a letter of resignation in early October 2017.