BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 24. The next trial session regarding the criminal case of Martin Ryan and Azad Mammadli, charged with spying for France, initiated by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan, has been conducted, Trend reports.
In the trial held at the Baku Grave Crimes Court, chaired by Judge Elmin Rustamov, defendant Martin Ryan asked to speak to Azad Mammadli to express his opinion on the statement he gave in the previous trial. The court allowed him to do so.
According to Ryan, Mammadli's statement was unfounded.
"He said that I had allegedly introduced some Azerbaijani citizens to representatives of French intelligence. However, this is not the case. I gave the names of all the individuals during the investigation. Z.M. was an employee of the French embassy who had good relations with those individuals. He also met with those individuals in person. I reported everything I knew during the investigation.
Ryan later indicated in his statement that the person named U.A. was in the case.
"Later, I learned that Frederick Devos is a man of French intelligence, has relations with them, and is a dangerous person. After learning this, I told U.A. that Frederick Devos is a dangerous person, serving French intelligence. Later, U.A. told me that another French intelligence officer, Laurent Grand, who came after Frederick Devos, offered him cooperation. But he refused," he explained.
Mammadli said that Martin is also lying in this speech and can prove it.
"Martin Ryan is also lying in this speech. I need a little time to collect the facts to prove this and report it to the court. Martin introduced some Azerbaijani citizens and 1 foreign citizen to representatives of French intelligence. Martin collected information from some people under the guise of teaching French and chess and passed it on to the French special services," he added.
Later, the statement given by the accused Ryan to the preliminary investigation was announced.
It was revealed that Ryan met R.M, F.H, E.A, E.S. while studying at the Faculty of International Relations in France.
After a while, he came to Azerbaijan at the invitation of E.S. After staying here for 10 days, he returned to France. Ryan came to Baku twice at the invitation of R.M. and stayed for 3 weeks before returning to his country.
On the eve of the meeting, he went to the French Embassy with R.M. and introduced him to the staff.
Although he visited Azerbaijan for the 4th time in December 2019, he returned to France after staying for a while, stayed there for a short time and returned to Azerbaijan again. Later, he established contact with Frederick Devos.
Ryan said that at first, Frederick Devos was a French special did not know that he worked in the service bodies. Later, he felt this from his questions. He mainly asked questions about energy, oil and gas, relations with neighboring countries, and military cooperation.
He asked questions about the weapons of Azerbaijan during the Second Karabakh War and Azerbaijan-Türkiye relations. After Frederick left, he was replaced by Leron Lödy. The essence of his questions was the same.
The trial will continue on July 21.
The accused persons were arrested on December 4, 2023. Ryan, CEO of Mercorama LLC, was charged with espionage (276th clause of Azerbaijan's Criminal Code).
According to the indictment, Ryan was used as a spy agent by employees of the French DGSE (General Directorate of External Security), who involved him in secret cooperation and were subsequently expelled from Baku as a "persona non grata."
Along with Ryan, Mammadli, a citizen of Azerbaijan, will stand trial in this criminal case on charges of "high treason" (274th clause of Azerbaijan's Criminal Code).
Stay up-to-date with more news on Trend News Agency's WhatsApp channel