Incident

Home page

Incident

Baku Court on Grave Crimes held trial of Martin Ryan, accused of spying for France

24 June 2025 12:12 (UTC +04:00)

The next court hearing has been held on the criminal case initiated by the State Security Service (SSS) regarding Martin Ryan, accused of espionage for France, and Azad Mammadli, charged with treason, APA reports.

At the hearing, which took place at the Baku Court on Grave Crimes, under the chairmanship of Judge Elmin Rustamov, the accused, Martin Ryan, requested to speak in order to respond to the statement made by Azad Mammadli in the previous hearing. The court allowed him to do so.

Martin Ryan's testimony

Martin Ryan stated that Azad Mammadli’s testimony is unfounded: “He claimed that I allegedly introduced some Azerbaijani citizens to representatives of French intelligence. However, this is not true. During the investigation, I provided the names of all individuals. The person who had good relations with those individuals was an employee of the French Embassy, Z.M. He even met with those individuals one-on-one. I have disclosed everything I knew during the investigation.”

Martin Ryan further stated in his testimony that there is a person mentioned in the case named U.A.: “Later I found out that Frédéric Devos is a member of French intelligence, has connections with them, and is a dangerous person. After learning this, I told U.A. that Frédéric Devos is a dangerous person and works for French intelligence. Later, U.A. told me that after Frédéric Devos, another French intelligence agent named Laurent Gérard offered him cooperation. However, he refused.”

What Azad Mammadli said

Azad Mammadli, in turn, stated that Martin is lying in this speech as well and that he can prove it: “Martin Ryan is lying in this speech too. I just need a short amount of time to gather the facts and present them to the court to prove it. Martin introduced some Azerbaijani citizens and one foreign national to representatives of French intelligence. Under the pretense of teaching French and giving chess lessons, Martin collected information from certain individuals and passed it on to French intelligence services.”

Afterward, the statement Martin Ryan gave during the preliminary investigation was read out in court.

It has been revealed that Martin Ryan met R.M, F.H, E.A, and E.S while studying at the Faculty of International Relations in France. After some time, he came to Azerbaijan at the invitation of E.S. After staying here for 10 days, he returned to France. Martin Ryan also came to Baku twice at the invitation of R.M, stayed for 3 weeks each time, and then returned to his country. Before the meeting, he went to the French Embassy with R.M and introduced him to the staff. In December 2019, although he visited Azerbaijan for the fourth time, after staying for a while, he returned to France, stayed there for a short period, and then returned again to Azerbaijan. Later, he established contact with Frédéric Devos.

Martin Ryan stated that at first he did not know that Frédéric Devos worked for the French intelligence services. Later, he sensed this from his questions. Devos mainly asked questions related to energy, oil and gas, relations with neighboring countries, and military cooperation. He asked questions about Azerbaijan’s weapons during the 44-day Patriotic War and Azerbaijan-Türkiye relations. After Frédéric left, he was replaced by Laurent Lodi. The essence of his questions was the same.

The trial will continue on July 21.

The accusation made by the State Security Service

Note that the accused individuals were arrested on December 4, 2023. The State Security Service has charged Martin Ryan, the CEO of "Merkorama" LLC, under Article 276 (espionage) of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan.

According to the indictment, Martin Ryan was used as an agent-spy by operatives of France’s DGSE (General Directorate for External Security), who had recruited him for covert cooperation and were later declared “persona non grata” and expelled from Baku.

In the same criminal case, Azerbaijani citizen Azad Mammadli has been charged under Article 274 of the Criminal Code (high treason).