An Azerbaijani court on Monday sentenced French citizen Martin Ryan to 10 years in prison after finding him guilty of collecting secret information about Baku's military cooperation with Turkey and Pakistan. Ryan was also accused of cooperating with employees of France's security services allegedly operating from the French embassy in Baku.

Ryan had pleaded guilty to some, but not all, of the charges. His co-accused, Azerbaijani national Azad Mamedli, was sentenced to 12 years for treason. Azerbaijani authorities alleged that Ryan recruited Mamedli and arranged for him to meet French intelligence agents.

While speaking in court, Ryan did not deny contacts with embassy officials but said he did not knowingly engage in espionage activities. According to France's AFP news agency, Ryan stated: "I consider myself guilty only in that I should not have established contacts with some embassy employees, or that I should have shared information about them with the appropriate authorities. I did not spy. I am not a spy, and during the court case I tried to prove this."

The Frenchman was arrested during a period of heightened tensions between Paris and Baku that have since eased. Both the tensions and the investigation into Ryan relate to the 44-day war in 2020 between Azerbaijan, Armenia, and ethnic Armenian separatists, known as the Second Nagorno-Karabakh War. France was highly critical of Azerbaijan's conduct during the war and adopted a staunchly pro-Armenian stance, which was seen as an attempt to counter Turkish and Russian influence in the region.

Azerbaijan remains a strong ally of Russia amidst its war in Ukraine, while France supports Kyiv. Armenia is a traditional ally of Moscow, but relations have soured in recent years. Azerbaijan later took control of the entirety of Nagorno-Karabakh in a lightning offensive in September 2023, leading to the exodus of almost all of the territory's ethnic Armenian population.

Source: www.dw.com