The next court hearing on the criminal case initiated by the State Security Service (SSS) against Martin Ryan, who is accused of spying for France, and Azad Mammadli, who is accused of treason, has been held, APA reports.
During the trial held at the Baku Court on Grave Crimes, chaired by Judge Elmin Rustamov, the accused Martin Ryan asked to speak.
He said that some terms were not clearly expressed when his statement was translated: "I want to clarify some things for clarity. There, the expressions "confidential cooperation" and "confidential meeting" were understood as "secret meetings" when translated into French, but I did not hold meetings with them secretly. I had conversations with the alleged agents in the presence of many people, in open places. Everyone knew, including Azad Mammadli."
The announcement of Martin Ryan's statement continued in the trial.
In his statement to the preliminary investigation, he said that he met with Frederic Devos, an employee of the French special services, at the "Araz" cafe, and then went for a walk. At that meeting, the Azerbaijan-Armenia war was discussed. Frederick asked them whether mercenaries from Türkiye and Pakistan were fighting for Azerbaijan. M. Ryan answered the questions based on what he had read on the Internet. Then M. Ryan asked for support in opening a company. Frederick Devos said that he would ask senior officials for help in this regard.
The statement noted that F. Devos said that he wanted to cooperate with those who knew French, so he became interested in those studying at the Moscow State University of International Relations. Martin Ryan said that he introduced him to Azad Mammadli. Later, A. Mammadli introduced Frederick Devos to his Azerbaijani acquaintance A.Sh.
Some time later, Martin Ryan's parents came to visit him. The photographs taken on his phone, attached to the criminal case, show that Martin Ryan, his father, mother, friends and an employee of the French special services Laurent Lödi, his wife and daughter first met in the house he rented in the Sabail district, and then went to a party. On those eves, Laurent said that he would give Martin a keyboard as a gift. He gave the keyboard near the embassy.
In addition, photos of Martin Ryan, Laurent and others at a party to celebrate the birthday of the Azerbaijani Z.M., who had previously studied in France, were shown in court.
It was noted that at the end of March of that year, a person named Jerome got Martin Ryan's number from Laurent and spoke to him. Jerome was an employee of the French special services.
Martin Ryan said that Azad Mammadli, together with French businessman Serge Banvel, attended an event organized by the Baku Francophonie Association in October 2019.
Frederick and his friend who worked at the embassy encouraged them to participate in such events more often. They later attended such events several times.
Martin Ryan later invited Laurent Lödi and others to a party at his rented house for Christmas. After that, he could not contact Laurent. He said that he believed they were friends, but later realized that Laurent was an intelligence officer and was simply using him.
Azad Mammadli told M. Ryan that Laurent was not interested in him, but in the internal affairs of Azerbaijan, that he looked at those around him suspiciously while chatting in a cafe, and that he suspected that he was an intelligence officer.
Martin Ryan also stated that in that year an Azerbaijani journalist contacted him and interviewed him. The journalist requested that interview in video format. After that, several journalists contacted him and learned about his position as a Frenchman regarding France's view of the Azerbaijani-Armenian war. The defendant was told that because of such interviews and published articles, he was treated badly in France, and it was hard for him as a Frenchman.
Martin Ryan also stated that he suspected that Z.M. had been summoned to the special services by Laurent Lédi.
Martin Ryan Laurent said that after Frederick Devos, Jerome Gassarino worked with him, and that the latter asked him questions about opening a company in Azerbaijan, as well as about Azerbaijani-Iranian relations and people of interest to him.
Martin Ryan also noted that after some time they spoke by phone to meet with Azad Mammadli. They agreed that the meeting would not be near the embassy.
In a telephone conversation obtained by court order, M. Ryan advised Azad Mammadli to reduce the amount of alcohol he drank and to be careful about what he says.
He asked Azad not to speak loudly about certain topics at events, to be careful, and not to damage his reputation. He said that it is necessary to be careful about topics that could be misunderstood.
Martin Ryan, while talking to Azad Mammadli, also stated that there were two people with the surname Laurent at the embassy.
It was noted that Martin Ryan also passed on information about Armenians with Russian passports leaving Karabakh.
During the phone call, Azad Mammadli told Martin Ryan that he wanted to see the French armed forces, not the Russian FSB, in Karabakh.
Continuing his testimony, Martin Ryan said that the intelligence officers were trying to get information from him. He said that Azad was knowledgeable about Russian issues, and he was knowledgeable about Iranian issues.
In addition, during the phone call, they said that they suspected that the State Security Service (SSS) was monitoring their meetings with French intelligence officers.
The next hearing was scheduled for September 8.
It should be noted that the accused were arrested on December 4, 2023. The State Security Service of Azerbaijan (SSS) has charged Martin Ryan, the general director of Merkorama LLC, under Article 276 (espionage) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
According to the charges, Martin Ryan was used as an agent-spy by employees of the French DGSE (Directorate-General for External Security), who recruited him for secret cooperation and later declared him “persona non-grata” and expelled him from Baku. In the same criminal case, along with Martin Ryan, Azad Mammadli, a citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan, was charged under Article 274 (treason) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
