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According to information from "Spiegel", Thomas Bareiß, Parliamentary State Secretary at the Federal Minister of Economics, had dubious contacts when he traveled to Azerbaijan. In 2012, the Azerbaijani parliamentarian Elxan Süleymanov is said to have invited several German MPs and government employees to the country - including Thomas Bareiß. At that time he was the coordinator for energy policy for the Union parliamentary group in the Bundestag.



Eduard Lintner allegedly helped organize the trip - he is a former CSU member of the Bundestag and Parliamentary State Secretary in the Ministry of the Interior, with his "Society for the Promotion of German-Azerbaijani Relations".

The Munich Public Prosecutor's Office is investigating him on suspicion of "taking and bribery of elected officials".

Lintner is therefore suspected of having been smeared with at least 819,500 euros from Azerbaijan in recent years.

Lintner rejects the allegations against the magazine.

Everything went correctly and transparently, he said.

Parliamentarians are said to have been bribed with sums of millions

The then tour guide von Bareiß, Süleymanov, is also suspected of having bribed European parliamentarians with sums of millions.

According to witness statements before the Council of Europe's investigative commission, the money, according to the report, came from Kamaladdin Heydarov.

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He heads the civil protection ministry in the Azerbaijani capital Baku.

Heydarov is considered an influential actor in Azerbaijan, according to leaked reports from the US embassy in Baku.

His two sons were active in the lobbying organization The European Azerbaijan Society (TEAS), which operated from its headquarters in London from 2008 to 2020.

According to "Spiegel" there are indications that TEAS had close contacts with a German interest group.

Thomas Bareiß was also active on its board of trustees for years: the German-Azerbaijani Forum.

No payments, no contacts - so the forum

For many years the TEAS homepage, which has since been deleted, said that the German-Azerbaijani forum was an "affiliate" of TEAS, a kind of subsidiary.

It was also said that one felt honored to work with the forum.

It is able to establish meetings between Germans and Azerbaijanis, among other things in the political field.

The chief lobbyist of TEAS in Germany until the end of 2010 was Shahin Namati-Nasab, who at times even had a house ID for the Bundestag.



On request, the German-Azerbaijani forum announced that there was no contact with TEAS, that the forum had "never received any payments" from TEAS.

Bareiß is not aware of any allegations of corruption

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Thomas Bareiß emphasizes that he did not know anything about any of the allegations in the past.

On his travels to Azerbaijan, he had all discussions “in my function as a member of the Committee on European Union Affairs and as a member of the Economic Committee”.

He had never received financial benefits or other favors, and at the time of the trip he was not aware of any allegations of corruption against politicians close to him.

A month ago, Bareiß was accused of contacting a German medical technology company at the request of the Azerbaijani government to put pressure on the delivery of ventilators.

According to the Federal Ministry of Economics, Bareiß only asked for the delivery date and communicated it to an official from Azerbaijan.