French businessman sentenced to 12 years in prison in Azerbaijan

Investigators accused this French citizen of accepting bribes from a Russian billionaire of Azerbaijani origin in exchange for lifting the immobilization of the yacht.

This decision was taken at a time when relations were tense between Baku and Paris. An Azerbaijani court sentenced a French businessman to 12 years in prison on Thursday, November 13 for accepting bribes from a Russian oligarch.

French water plant Saur’s director for the Middle East, Anass Derraz was immediately detained following the sentence. in the case involving Alexandre Benalla, a former close friend of French President Emmanuel Macron.

In recent years, some French citizens have been in contact with Azerbaijani courts, while Paris and Baku have had tense relations, due to France’s support for Armenia, Azerbaijan’s historic rival. Paris itself accused Baku of fueling tensions in France’s overseas territories.

Investigators accuse the French citizen of receiving, in 2018, money from the Russian billionaire of Azerbaijani origin Farkhad Akhmedov in exchange for services: lifting the immobilization of a yacht, exiled in the United Arab Emirates in divorce proceedings.

According to prosecutors, some of the money would have gone into a bank account held by Alexandre Benalla, a former manager at the Elysée for security, whose name has been linked to one of the most embarrassing affairs of Emmanuel Macron’s first five-year term. In 2018, a close friend of the President of the Republic was recorded committing violence against two people during a demonstration in Paris. He was later tried by French courts in several other cases.

The indictment further states that Anass Derraz and Alexandre Benalla promised to obtain protection for Farkhad Akhmedov from sanctions targeting Russian interests. The European Union and Britain imposed sanctions on the Russian-Azerbaijani businessman following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. His name was later removed from the list.