Azerbaijan jails French executive for 12 years for bribery
Azerbaijan sentenced a French businessman to 12 years in prison Thursday, accusing him of taking a bribe from a Russian oligarch in a case that also features a disgraced ex-bodyguard of French leader Emmanuel Macron.
Relations between Paris and Baku are strained over France's backing of neighbouring Armenia. France has also accused Baku of stirring tensions in its overseas territories.
A court in Baku sentenced Anass Derraz, vice president of a water management company called Saur, to 12 years behind bars, an AFP journalist reported from the courtroom.
Prosecutors earlier requested a 13-year sentence for Derraz. He is accused of taking a bribe from a Russian billionaire of Azerbaijani origin, Farhad Akhmedov, in 2018.
The EU and Britain sanctioned Akhmedov after Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, though both later lifted the measures.
Prosecutors have also alleged that Alexandre Benalla, Macron's ex-bodyguard fired in 2018 after he was filmed assaulting protesters, was also paid a bribe.
According to the indictment, Derraz and Benalla promised to secure the release of Akhmedov's yacht seized as part of a disputed divorce settlement and to shield him from being hit with Western sanctions.
The court ruled that Derraz be immediately taken into custody and deported from Azerbaijan after serving his sentence.
Several French citizens have been arrested in Azerbaijan in recent years as relations between the two countries have soured.
