The political caucus of the European People’s Party is considering in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe the charge that the prosecutor’s office of Milan has brought against former head of the caucus of Italian descent Luca Volonte for taking a bribe from Azerbaijan.

This is what member of the Armenian Delegation to the PACE, Deputy of the faction of the Republican Party of Armenia in the National Assembly Samvel Farmanyan wrote on his Facebook page.

“1:45…The political caucus of the European People’s Party in the PACE is considering the charge that the prosecutor’s office of Milan has brought against former head of the EPP political caucus of Italian descent, Luca Volonte for taking a bribe from Azerbaijan. Passions are flaring within the EPP. The Azerbaijani lobby has sent its revealed and revealing clients to fight. We insist that the PACE needs to designate a specific reporter or investigator who will deliver a report on the corruption scandal to the PACE in a short amount of time to question the reputation of the EPP across Europe,” wrote Farmanyan.

In February 2016, the police and prosecutor’s office of Milan instigated a criminal case against Luca Volonte, who is a former deputy of the Christian-Democratic Party and the former leader of the faction of the European People’s Party in the PACE. Volonte is charged with taking a 2.4 mln Euro bribe from Azerbaijan between the years of 2012 and 2013. In exchange, the official Baku was using her in the Parliament of Italy and in the PACE. The case instigated against Volonte officially has two chapters-bribery and money-laundering. Interestingly, former Italian deputy Volonte has decided to keep silent and refuses to talk to the investigators conducting the preliminary investigation.