On January 22, the Higher Regional Court in Munich found former German Bundestag member Axel Fischer guilty in the so-called “Azerbaijani affair,” sentencing him to one year and two months of suspended imprisonment for accepting bribes. Fischer, a member of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), was ordered to pay €32,000—€20,000 to reimburse part of the bribe, and €12,000 as a donation to the victim support foundation Die Stiftung Opferhilfe. He is also banned from running for public office for two years, Deutsche Welle reports.

The court confirmed that Fischer had received payments from Azerbaijan to promote its interests in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE). According to the court’s press release, during a 2016 PACE session concerning Nagorno-Karabakh, Fischer voted and spoke in favor of Azerbaijan. During his tenure at PACE, he repeatedly passed confidential documents to Baku’s representatives.

The presiding judge stated that Fischer received at least €79,000 in cash by early 2011. However, the court noted that such payments only became criminally prosecutable under new legislation passed in September 2014.

Fischer has consistently denied the allegations, while his defense team accused prosecutors of conducting a biased investigation. After evading court proceedings for an extended period, he was arrested in late December 2025. The court concluded he had attempted to avoid prosecution.

Transparency International declared that the verdict marks a legal milestone: “For the first time, a former Bundestag MP has been convicted for accepting bribes while holding parliamentary office,” the organization said.

In July 2025, former Bavarian CSU member Eduard Lintner received a nine-month suspended sentence in the same case.