Corrupt and despotic allies of the Maltese government: an update
Radio Free Europe reports today:
Azerbaijani Parliament Moves To Shield Aliyev, Family From Scrutiny
BAKU —
Azerbaijan’s parliament, which is dominated by allies of President Ilham Aliyev, passed two laws this week that activists say are designed to increase government opacity and protect Aliyev’s family in the wake of recent investigative reports of its widespread, lucrative, and questionable business dealings.
Lawmakers approved a bill that would grant wide-ranging immunity from arrest and prosecution to Aliyev and his wife for any crime committed during his presidency or while acting in his capacity as president.
(…)
Corruption is a serious problem in oil-rich Azerbaijan. The country ranked 143rd out of 183 countries in the latest corruption index by the NGO Transparency International.
(…)
Read the full report in the link below.
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http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan-ilham-aliyev-wife-immunity-from-prosecution/24614499.html
Azerbaijan could be the next Ukraine, and Aliyev the next Yanukovych.
Guess who needs their passport. Chavtastic enough to go unnoticed.
And Malta under Labour supporting the regime the common factor in both?
No doubt. It already is.
Amnesty International has many things to say on the Aliyev dictatorship.
http://www.amnesty.org/en/news/azerbaijan-downward-spiral-oppression-ahead-presidential-elections-2013-10-08
http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/EUR55/010/2013/en/b787d58a-2e9f-4832-b83f-d816ad32079a/eur550102013en.html
Money makes the Aliyev’s world go round. It’s usually someone else’s.
http://www.rferl.org/content/Aliyevs_Azerbaijani_Empire_Grows_As_Daughter_Joins_The_Game/2127137.html
http://www.icij.org/offshore/offshore-companies-provide-link-between-corporate-mogul-and-azerbaijans-president
http://www.rferl.org/content/azerbaijan-aliyev-family-offshore-businesses/24947900.html
The Aliyevs are up to their necks in stolen cash. They’ve got so much, they’ve stashed it away in offshore companies. These are the ones in the BVI. CNBC also reports another 11 companies in Panama.
Daddy: http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/49522
Mummy: http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/88959
Big sister Leyla: http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/112039
Middle sister Azru: http://offshoreleaks.icij.org/nodes/78392
Baby brother Haydar (aged 11) owns USD44,000,000 worth of property in Dubai.
More prospective Maltese passport buyers.
This strangely reminds me of a similar move by Ben Ali (Tunisia) in 2009 when he got the Constitution amended to shield himself, his immediate family and his descendents ad vitam aeternam from any prosecution. But it was shortlived !
Ghidli ma’ min taghmilha, u nghidlek x’int. (Maltese proverb)
Translation: Tell me whose company you keep and I’ll tell you what you are.
BBC Panorama (2012) – Eurovision’s Dirty Secret: Azerbaijan –
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oea2XGsIbvI
Joseph Muscat invited Viktor Yanukovych, president of Ukraine, to Malta and he immediately faced riots in Kiev, followed by his being forced out and is now on the run.
Muscat was to meet Italy’s new prime minister Matteo Renzi today but Renzi took a raincheck. On the news, I saw Renzi visiting some school instead.
Muscat wrote a birthday letter to President Aliyev of Azerbaijan, and now people are setting fire to themselves outside government buildings there, in protest against his corruption.
It is fairly probable that there will be another “spring” – this time, not an Arab Spring but an ex-Soviet block Spring.
If the Ukrainians did it, so can the Azerbaijanis.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-02-27/burnt-bodies-in-baku-show-ex-soviet-protests-not-only-in-ukraine.html
So Russia Today was constantly mentioning Malta during the coverage of riots in Ukraine. Malta was mentioned as one of the countries actively supporting and aiding the Ukraine government. It was quite bizarre.
I think someone at Castille is trawling the internet finding pariahs, autocrats and dictators we can do business with. Boy, they must be missing Gaddafi.
This sorry state of affairs is not an issue of PN or PL however. The criminalization of the Maltese state has been in progress for a long time.
And the sale of passports, as some international sources have rightly pointed out, is not a question of what citizenship means in the 21st century. It’s a question of Malta’s continued commitment to the European idea.
The best comment I have seen so far about Malta is that we joined the European Union because we thought it was a group of Christian Caliphates. Someone really nailed our true lack of a European identity.