A French citizen has been sentenced to ten years in a strict-regime colony in Azerbaijan after being convicted of spying. The court found him guilty of operating on behalf of a foreign intelligence service and collecting classified data, reports suggest.
Martin Ryan was detained in December 2023 on accusations of spying for France. According to the investigation, he was collecting information about military cooperation between Baku, Turkey and Pakistan, as well as recruiting French-speaking Azerbaijanis to collaborate with French intelligence. Ryan himself and official Paris have repeatedly denied these allegations.
During the trial, the prosecution argued that the defendant acted in coordination with French intelligence officers who were allegedly operating under diplomatic cover at the French embassy in Baku. Prosecutors claimed Ryan procured information regarding Azerbaijan’s relations with Turkey, Iran, and Pakistan, as well as intelligence on companies linked to Russia and China. Additionally, he was charged with recruiting Azerbaijani national Azad Mammadov, whom the court sentenced to 12 years in a penal colony for high treason. Investigators alleged that Mammadov was tasked by Ryan with recruiting Azerbaijani and Russian students at a Moscow university where he was studying.
France has previously characterized its citizen’s detention as “arbitrary” and insisted on his immediate release. In his final statement to the court, Martin Ryan flat-out rejected all charges, saying that he had never engaged in espionage and had acted without any malicious intent.