Fabien Azoulay transferred to France after four years in jail in Turkey

French-American Fabien Azoulay who was sentenced to 16 years in prison in Turkey in 2017 for buying a banned drug on the Internet, has been transferred to France "to finish serving his sentence", his lawyers announced Tuesday.

Fabien Azoulay, 43, a French national and US citizen imprisoned in Turkey since 2017 on a photo provided by his family. © AFP / Famille Azoulay

After four years of difficult detention in Turkey, Fabien Azoulay who was sentenced to 16 years in prison by the Turkish justice for possession of drugs, was transferred to France on Tuesday 17 August.

The 43-year-old French-American's lawyers, Carole-Olivia Montenot and François Zimeray, hailed "the outcome of a long battle in which the mobilisation of public opinion has been decisive".

On Tuesday evening, Montenot confirmed to French news agency AFP that her client, who had been detained for four years in Turkey, had arrived in France, where he had been imprisoned in a prison in Paris, after being presented to the public prosecutor.

"A great relief"

The French secretary of state for European affairs, Clément Beaune, wrote on Twitter: "This is wonderful news, a great relief, the result of a collective and just mobilisation."

#Justice | Fabien Azoulay rentre en France. Une belle nouvelle, un grand soulagement, l’aboutissement d’une mobilisation collective et juste 🇫🇷@francediplo @EmmanuelMacron https://t.co/Itv8TjcXSW

— Clement Beaune (@CBeaune) August 17, 2021

During a short trip in 2017 to Istanbul to get hair implants, Fabien Azoulay, now 43, had been arrested for buying 2 litres of GBL on the internet.

GBL (gamma-butyrolactone) is a chemical used as a paint solvent which, once ingested, is transformed in the body into GHB, otherwise known as the "rapist's drug".

According to his lawyers, he was unaware that the product had been banned in Turkey six months earlier and had been supplied with it "in good faith".

Sentenced to 16 years in prison

Azoulay was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for "importing drugs", a sentence later reduced to 16 years and 8 months on appeal.

In April, Montenot and Zimeray spoke publicly about their client's case for the first time, saying that he had been "the victim of aggravated violence committed by a fellow prisoner" who had inflicted burns on him in 2018 "because of his homosexuality and his membership of the Jewish religion".

"I pray and cry every day for a miracle to happen. I can't see myself staying here for 16 years and eight months," the prisoner had written in letters sent to his family from Giresun prison in northeastern Turkey, according to France 24.

"There are so many of us. At night, to go to the toilet, we have to trample on those who are sleeping. When they are woken up, they throw fits and only know how to respond with violence," he also said.

A petition, launched four months ago by his support committee, addressed to the French President Emmanuel Macron, had gathered 120,178 signatures.

In mid-June, during the Nato summit in Brussels, Emmanuel Macron had raised the case of Fabien Azoulay with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, assuring at the time that "the conditions for a rapid transfer are advancing".

"As soon as he arrives on French territory, we will refer the case to the competent court with a view to releasing Fabien Azoulay", said the lawyers, who intend to file a request to adapt his sentence to five years, as provided for in the French law for this offence.

(with AFP)