Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev exchanged verbal punches with deputies at today’s PACE plenary session in Strasbourg who raised concerns about human rights violations in Azerbaijan.

During a Q&A session after his speech, Aliyev went after Irish deputy Michael McNamara and accused him of being biased and misinformed on the issue of political prisoners in Azerbaijan.

Aliyev then turned his ire on Deputy Paul Flynn (UK) for daring to raise the issue of attacks against reporters in Azerbaijan.

Aliyev insisted no such incidents have been registered and angrily addressed Flynn - "You are lying."

The president went on to claim that the press in Azerbaijan operates freely, there is no censorship, and freedom of speech is guaranteed.

“We cannot restrict the media. On the contrary, we allow it freedom because that is what democracy means and because this is important for the Azerbaijan of today. We are proud of this,” Aliyev said.

The Azerbaijani president likened corruption as a type of post-Soviet inheritance that his government is battling against.

He then mockingly said that if Europe so desired, Baku could impart some of their successful experience in this regard.

PACE President Anne Brasseur noted that there are no women in the Azerbaijani delegation, and expressed the hope that at the next session she wouldn’t only see male faces.