France demands release of citizen accused of espionage in Azerbaijan

France accused Azerbaijan on Tuesday of holding a French national arbitrarily and demanded his immediate release after Baku's envoy to France said the man had been arrested on suspicion of espionage.

Azerbaijan's ambassador to France, Leyla Abdoullayeva, told Reuters earlier on Tuesday the French citizen, Martin Ryan, was arrested on Dec. 4 on "suspicion of carrying out acts of espionage".

"As we have already had the opportunity to indicate to the Azerbaijani authorities, we consider this detention to be arbitrary and demand the immediate release of our compatriot.”