BAKU, March 16 (Reuters) – A court in Azerbaijan sentenced a French citizen to ten years in jail on Monday after finding him guilty of spying on behalf of Paris, a charge he partially pleaded guilty to, Russia’s RIA state news agency reported.
Baku had accused the man, Martin Ryan – who was arrested in December 2023 – of collecting secret information about its military cooperation with Turkey and Pakistan. It had also accused him of helping to recruit French-speaking Azerbaijanis to cooperate with French intelligence.
Prior to his arrest, Ryan had been working in Azerbaijan for a food importing company that also offered consulting services. Prosecutors alleged he had facilitated contact between French intelligence and Azad Mammadli, an Azerbaijani citizen who went on trial alongside Ryan and was sentenced to 12 years in prison on Monday.
Mammadli denied any guilt at the start of the trial.
Ties between Baku and Paris have been strained over France’s close ties to Armenia, against whom Azerbaijan fought several wars in the last four decades. France has a large Armenian diaspora and supplies arms to Yerevan.
Last May, Azerbaijan pardoned another French citizen, Theo Hugo Clerc, who had been jailed for three years for drawing graffiti in the Baku metro.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy PapachristouEditing by Andrew Osborn)
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