Overview

• Eduard Lintner, former CSU Bundestag member, acknowledged forwarding millions in Azerbaijani payments but denied it constituted bribery, calling it routine lobbying.
• Lintner testified that the funds, transferred through shell companies, were intended to influence decisions in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).
• The Munich court separated and suspended the trial of ex-CDU MP Axel Fischer due to his illness, with proceedings to restart later.
• Charges against two other co-defendants were provisionally dropped after they paid financial penalties, leaving Lintner as the primary defendant in the case.
• The court plans to hear final statements and deliver its verdict by the end of July, marking a key moment in Germany's first foreign bribery trial involving former MPs.