Azerbaijan detains French national on spying charges

Baku’s envoy to France announced on Tuesday that a French national was being held in Azerbaijan on suspicion of espionage, marking the latest development in the deteriorating relationship between the two nations.

Martin Ryan, a French national, was detained on December 4 on “suspicion of carrying out acts of espionage,” according to Leyla Abdoullayeva, who spoke with Reuters.

The foreign ministry of France remained silent for a while.

Since Baku assumed control of the Nagorno-Karabakh region, relations between Paris and Baku have become more strained.

Abdoullayeva said legal authorities in Azerbaijan had ordered Ryan be initially held for four months and that the French embassy had been notified of the arrest.

Baku on Dec. 26 expelled two French diplomats saying they were acting in a way that was “incompatible with their diplomatic status”.

France’s foreign ministry, which denied the Azeri claims, the next day summoned Abdoullayeva and said it was expelling two Azeri diplomats in response.

At the time of the Nagorno campaign, France repeatedly criticized Azeri authorities over the blocking of the Lachin corridor, the key road that linked Armenia to the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh enclave. It has since provided military equipment to Armenia.

In November, France’s cyber defence unit uncovered a disinformation campaign emanating from Azerbaijan that aimed to undermine Paris’s capacity to hold next year’s Olympic Games, according to a report seen by Reuters.

(with inputs from Reuters)