France demands release of citizen arrested in Azerbaijan
- 12 January, 06:23
Azerbaijan and France have become engulfed in another political row following Baku’s detention of a French national on espionage charges.
The French Foreign Ministry on January 9 accused Azerbaijan of “arbitrary” detention of its citizen after Baku’s envoy to France said the Frenchman had been detained on suspicion of espionage.
Azerbaijan's ambassador to France, Leyla Abdullayeva, said earlier on that day that the French citizen, Martin Ryan, was arrested on December 4 on "suspicion of carrying out acts of espionage". She said judicial authorities had ordered him to be detained "for a period of four months", adding that the French diplomatic mission in Baku had been notified as soon as the man was arrested.
"We are in close contact with his family and the French embassy in Baku was able to visit our compatriot twice as part of consular protection," the French Foreign Ministry said. “We have already had the opportunity to indicate to the Azerbaijani authorities, we consider this detention to be arbitrary and demand the immediate release of our compatriot,” it added.
Earlier, on December 26, Azerbaijan expelled two French diplomats, saying they were acting in a way that was "incompatible with their diplomatic status".
The French Foreign Ministry summoned the Azerbaijani envoy the next day and expelled two Azerbaijani diplomats in reciprocity.
