PARIS: France on Thursday accused Azerbaijan of inflicting “arbitrary and discriminatory treatment” on one of its citizens, jailed for three years for spraying graffiti on the Baku metro.
“Theo Clerc was sentenced on September 10 by an Azerbaijani court to three years’ detention… while his two co-defendants on exactly the same charges, with a different nationality, were sentenced only to a fine,” a foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement.
“France condemns the arbitrary and discriminatory treatment of which our fellow citizen is the victim,” he added.
Paris, a longtime supporter of Armenia and home to a sizeable Armenian diaspora, has long had frosty relations with the country’s arch-rival Azerbaijan.
That has intensified since the second war between the neighbours over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region in 2020 and Baku’s seizure of control over the territory last year — leading to the exodus of more than 100,000 Armenians.
Paris this year accused Azerbaijan of interfering in its internal politics by stoking tensions in overseas territories and dependencies — including the Pacific archipelago New Caledonia, rocked by deadly unrest from mid-May.
Baku hosted a two-day congress of separatist movements from such French territories in July, at which they agreed to set up an “International Front for the Liberation of French Colonies” and accused France of racism and repression.
Paris said Thursday that citizens and dual nationals are “advised against travel to Azerbaijan unless it is imperative to do so, because of the risk of arbitrary detention and unfair court proceedings”.
Another Frenchman, Martin Ryan, is currently detained in Azerbaijan, accused of espionage, with Paris “categorically” rejecting the Azerbaijani accusations.
International focus on Azerbaijan — ruled by President Ilham Aliyev since the death of his father Heydar in 2003 — is expected to increase in the next months as the gas-rich Caspian state hosts in November the COP 29 UN climate change conference.