{"id":2645,"date":"2017-10-06T10:12:56","date_gmt":"2017-10-06T10:12:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2645"},"modified":"2017-10-09T10:29:51","modified_gmt":"2017-10-09T10:29:51","slug":"top-european-human-rights-official-pedro-agramunt-quits-amid-scandal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2645","title":{"rendered":"Top European human rights official Pedro Agramunt quits amid scandal"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><em>BBC<\/em><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><strong>A top European human rights official has resigned amid a corruption investigation and complaints about him having visited Syria with Russian MPs.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Pedro Agramunt resigned as president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). The council is Europe&#8217;s main human rights watchdog.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">PACE members &#8211; MPs from across Europe &#8211; had <a href=\"http:\/\/assembly.coe.int\/nw\/xml\/News\/News-View-EN.asp?newsid=6799&amp;lang=2&amp;cat=15\">called for his dismissal<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">PACE is probing claims that some of its members did favours for Azerbaijan in so-called &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/covcasbulletin-info.hhd.am\/?s=caviar+diplomacy\">caviar diplomacy<\/a>&#8221; [link provided by CB ed.].<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The oil-rich ex-Soviet state has cracked down on political dissidents.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">There are suspicions that Azerbaijan influenced members of PACE, allegedly wooing them with gifts, and in 2013 the assembly rejected a report on Azeri political prisoners.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Independent investigators are to report on the PACE scandal by the end of this year.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Separately, Mr Agramunt &#8211; a Spaniard &#8211; was criticised for his visit to Syria with Russian MPs in March, when he met President Bashar al-Assad.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">The Syrian leader has been condemned internationally for human rights abuses, including chemical attacks blamed on his forces.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/socpace.org\/2017\/04\/10\/soc-group-statement-explanations-on-agramunts-visit-in-syria\/\">In a statement<\/a> the Socialist group at PACE said &#8220;even if the visit has been &#8216;personal&#8217; and &#8216;private&#8217;, in no case the name of the Parliamentary Assembly can be involved in initiatives which can be objectively read as a support of Assad&#8217;s regime and its action against the Syrian population&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">Russia has boycotted the 47-nation assembly since January, angry at Western sanctions relating to its annexation of Crimea and help for rebels in eastern Ukraine.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">PACE meets next week, but a debate on Mr Agramunt&#8217;s position on Monday will no longer take place.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A Briton, Roger Gale, will replace him provisionally.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>BBC A top European human rights official has resigned amid a corruption investigation and complaints about him having visited Syria with Russian MPs. Pedro Agramunt <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/?p=2645\" title=\"Top European human rights official Pedro Agramunt quits amid scandal\">[more &gt;&gt;&gt;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2646,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,7,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2645","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-region","category-azerbaijan","category-azerbaijan-human-rights"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2645"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2647,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2645\/revisions\/2647"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2645"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2645"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/covcasbulletin.info\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2645"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}