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A flight from Cuba to Germany was forced to make an emergency stopover at Shannon Airport, Co Clare, after a German politician on board lost consciousness.
Karin Strenz (53), who represented the northeastern state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern in the Bundestag for Angela Merkel’s CDU party, was pronounced dead after being taken to hospital upon landing on Sunday.
It was unclear Sunday night if Ms. Strenz was on a personal or work trip to Cuba, or what caused her death, and an autopsy was required to establish why she lost consciousness. It is understood that she was with her husband on the plane, flying to Frankfurt, when a medical emergency was reported and the pilot was cleared to make an unscheduled stop at around 7:30 a.m. at Shannon.
Paramedics took Ms Strenz from the plane to Limerick University Hospital, where they pronounced her dead. The flight he had been on continued his journey to Frankfurt.
In response to inquiries, Garda HQ at Phoenix Park in Dublin confirmed that a woman who had been on a flight that landed in Shannon later died, but did not comment on her identity.
“Gardaí and emergency services were alerted to a medical emergency aboard a flight that landed at Shannon Airport, Co Clare at approximately 7:30 pm,” he said of the Sunday morning landing.
“A woman (50 years old) was taken to Limerick University Hospital from the plane. The woman was pronounced deceased shortly after. Arrangements have been made for an autopsy to be carried out. ”
Formal investigation
Strenz was part of a group of politicians from Merkel’s party who were under investigation for allegedly taking money from Azerbaijan in exchange for lobbying on behalf of the authoritarian and oil-rich former Soviet republic. State prosecutors launched a formal investigation into her in January.
He served since 2002 in the Mecklenburg-Vorpommern state parliament, and passed to the Bundestag in 2009.
In 2019 he admitted that a company he ran, Line M-Trade, accepted € 15,000 in donations in 2014 and 2015 without saying where the money came from.
Around the same time, he voted against a motion in the Council of Europe, the European human rights body, demanding that Azerbaijan release political prisoners. A Council of Europe report in 2018 found evidence of corruption and banned Ms Strenz for life from the body.
Earlier this year, the Bundestag fined him € 20,000 for accepting undeclared donations. One of three center-right politicians charged with lobbying in Azerbaijan was facing a full investigation, and faced a prison sentence of up to five years.
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