Tasnim - The leader of the parliamentary assembly in Europe�s oldest human rights body has been stripped of his powers after being accused of tarnishing his office by meeting the Syrian president, Bashar al-Assad.





In a move unprecedented in the 68-year history of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe (Pace), senior MPs passed a vote of no confidence in the president, Pedro Agramunt.

The Spanish senator was re-elected president for a second one-year term in January, but has since faced criticism for his handling of alleged corruption at the assembly and a recent surprise visit he made to Damascus on a Russian military jet, The Guardian reported.

A cross-party group of Pace�s senior leaders agreed unanimously on Friday that Agramunt should be banned from making official visits or public statements as president.

The assembly, which was co-founded by Winston Churchill after the Second World War, has no power to impeach, limiting its options.

Agramunt had been due to make a statement, but failed to show up to the meeting to discuss his future.

�The president chose not to attend the bureau today and has not presented a letter of resignation. As a result, and in the context of the current rules of procedure under which the president cannot be compelled to resign, the bureau felt it necessary to take these steps,� said Sir Roger Gale, a British Conservative MP who chaired the meeting.

But Agramunt showed no signs that he would hand over the reins. A statement in his name circulated among journalists at the Strasbourg assembly described recent criticism of him as �an entirely bizarre case and a regrettable spectacle�.

The statement did not directly respond to calls for his resignation, but urged members to �recover the path of consensus to achieve our foundational goals � and ensure that this situation does not happen again�.

Officials in Strasbourg did not know where Agramunt was and his office did not immediately respond to questions.

His refusal to resign takes the human rights body into uncharted waters. �For the good of the organization, he should stand aside immediately,� said Pieter Omtzigt, a Dutch centre-right MP who has been one of Agramunt�s strongest critics.

�His behavior has already tarnished the assembly [and] is now further damaging the work of the assembly at a time when human rights are under great pressure and democracy in large parts of Europe [is also under pressure].�

Frank Schwab, a German socialist, said: �Agramunt virtually personifies the fundamental problems of the parliamentary assembly of the Council of Europe � [His] recent visit to Assad symbolizes the exploitation of the Council of Europe by several governments, which refuse to take the institution�s core values seriously.�

Agramunt flew to Damascus with a Russian delegation that included Leonid Slutsky, the head of the Russian Duma�s foreign affairs committee, and days before a deadly chemical attack in Idlib province.

The unannounced trip was reported by Russian media as a visit by the president of Pace, leaving furious diplomats in Strasbourg scrambling to distance them from Agramunt�s freelance diplomacy.

Agramunt said on Monday that he had made a mistake by meeting Assad and claimed his visit was �manipulated by Russian media�. He insisted he had travelled not representing the Council of Europe but as a Spanish senator �looking for peace�.