Two former German lawmakers accused of bribery in 'Azerbaijan affair'

Two former conservative politicians in Germany's parliament are facing allegations of bribery for their role in a corruption scandal known as the Azerbaijan affair.

Prosecutors in Munich announced the bribery charges on Monday against Axel Fischer and Eduard Lintner, both former lawmakers from the centre-right CDU/CSU bloc.

The politicians both allegedly took bribes aimed at influencing decisions in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in favour of Azerbaijan, according to prosecutors.

PACE is the parliamentary arm of the Council of Europe, an organization of 46 countries. Among PACE's responsibilities are electing judges to the European Court of Human Rights.

Lintner, who spent 33 years in Germany's parliament and was a member of PACE until 2010, allegedly received "several million euros via 19 foreign letterbox companies" from two firms until 2016, according to prosecutors.

He allegedly passed some of the payments on to other politicians who were supposed to influence decisions in favour of Azerbaijan.

Fischer, who was active in PACE as group leader for the conservative European People's Party (EPP) faction from 2010 to 2018, allegedly made favourable speeches in the interests of Azerbaijan and forwarded confidential documents, according to prosecutors.

In return, he allegedly received a bribe totalling €21,800 ($23,570) in 2016.

Lintner described the suspicions of bribery as "utter nonsense" in an interview on Monday with dpa.

After leaving his political post, Lintner said he worked as a paid lobbyist advocating for the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh to be assigned to Azerbaijan, which he argued is proper under international law, but denied paying bribes to others.

Fischer told dpa on Monday that the accusations against him are untrue, but that he was happy prosecutors had finally presented allegations in court after a lengthy three-year investigation.

The proceedings are "not only stressful and dangerous for my family and especially for my children, but it is also destroying my professional and social life," said Fischer, who was in the German parliament from 1998 to 2021.