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Azerbaijan signs Council of Europeâ€™s Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption

08 October 2012 20:58 (UTC +04:00)

Chief of Department to Combat Corruption at the Prosecutor Generalâ€™s Office Kamran Aliyev, Assistant Prosecutor General V. Samadov and Deputy Permanent Representative to the Council of Europe Jalal Mirzayev participated in the signing ceremony, APA reports.
Azerbaijan ratified the Council of Europeâ€™s â€œCriminal Law Convention on Corruptionâ€ in 2003, Chief of Department to Combat Corruption at the Prosecutor Generalâ€™s Office Kamran Aliyev told APA.
â€œWhen we signed this convention, we accepted some clauses with proviso. To sign any clause or clauses with proviso is a right of each country, that is to notify its disagreement with these clauses. And we also used our rights when we signed this convention. They are clauses # 5 (Bribery of foreign public officials), 6 (Bribery of members of foreign public assemblies), 10 (Bribery of members of international parliamentary assemblies) and 12 (Trading in influence) of the â€œCriminal Law Convention on Corruptionâ€. But now we have made some amendments to our national legislation and we have cancelled these provisos. In addition, today Prosecutor General signed the Additional Protocol (bribery of domestic arbitrators, bribery of foreign arbitrators, bribery of domestic and foreign jurors) dated May 15, 2003 of â€œCriminal Law Convention on Corruptionâ€. But preparations were being made for a long time. According to the order signed by President on August 30, Prosecutor General was commissioned to sign the Additional Protocol to the Criminal Law Convention on Corruption of the Council of Europe. Today the protocol has been signed and after ratification at the Parliament it will come into effect in Azerbaijan.

K. Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan had signed the Additional Protocol with a statement. â€œLike the Convention in 2003, we have signed this Additional Protocol with a statement. The statement reads that 20 % percent of Azerbaijani territories has been occupied by Armenia and we donâ€™t take responsibility for the application of the Conventionâ€™s clauses in the occupied territoriesâ€.
Within frame of the visit to the Council of Europe Z.Garalov had a bilateral meeting with Gabriella Battaini-Dragoni, Deputy Secretary General of the Council of Europe.
The sides exchanged views on relations between Azerbaijan and the Council of Europe.
Ms.Battaini-Dragoni was informed about the legislation and institutional measures to combat corruption in Azerbaijan as well as National Action Plans for 2012-2015 on promoting Open Government and on combating corruption, establishment and functions of the State Agency for Public Services and Social Innovations under the President.
Progressive changes made in the struggle against corruption in Azerbaijan were highly appreciated and Azerbaijanâ€™s successful cooperation with the Group of States against corruption (GRECO) was underlined, it was noted that the cooperation would be continued.