Paris Condemns Imprisonment Of French Citizen In Azerbaijan
RFERL.org
The French Embassy in Azerbaijan on September 12 condemned the imprisonment in the South Caucasus nation of French citizen Theo Clerk over the painting of graffiti on metro trains in Baku.
The embassy’s statement stressed that two co-defendants in the case, who are citizens of other nations, were fined but not jailed on the same charges. Two days earlier, a Baku court sentenced Clerk to three years in prison on charges of hooliganism and damaging property. An Australian and a citizen of New Zealand were ordered to pay 6,800 manats ($4,000) each on the same charges.
Azerbaijani-French relations have been tense lately over Paris’s pro-Armenian position regarding Nagorno-Karabakh.