Three foreigners have been sentenced in Azerbaijan for defacing the Baku metro with graffiti, including a Frenchman who has been jailed for three years – a move that is ratcheting up already tense relations with Paris.

Even before the sentencing, last week the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a notice advising French citizens to avoid travelling to authoritarian Azerbaijan, citing risks of arrest, arbitrary detention, and unfair judicial proceedings. 

Three foreign nationals – French citizen Theo Hugo Clerk, Australian citizen Paul Han, and New Zealand citizen Ismael de Saint-Quentin – were found guilty by the Narimanov District Court under Articles 221.2.1 (hooliganism by a group of persons) and 186.2.2 (intentional destruction or damage to property causing significant consequences) of the Criminal Code on September 10, according to their lawyer Elchin Sadigov.

Graffiti artist Clerk (b. 1986), was sentenced to three  years in prison, while de Saint Quentin (b. 1994), and Han (b. 1992) were both fined AZN6,800 (euro3,620). Clerk had earlier been fined AZN4,600 by the Yasamal District Court for the graffiti, but the Baku Court of Appeal later raised the damages to AZN11,600.

Clerk had been held in pre-trial detention since April, while the other two had been placed under house arrest with travel restrictions. 

All deny their guilt and said they will appeal the decisions. They have already compensated for the repair costs and the train being out of service. 

In April, they were arrested for drawing graffiti at a train at the Bakmil metro station in Baku, which the court deemed hooliganism and damage to others' property with significant consequences. The court also classified the temporary suspension of the train service as a “serious consequence”.

“Aside from their nationalities, there were no differences in the characteristics of the accused," said Sadigov, hinting at Clerk's French identity being the real reason for his harsher sentence.

Clerk maintains that he did not commit a crime and had no intent to cause damage. 

In an appeal on Facebook via his lawyer to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and First Vice-President Mehriban Aliyeva, Clerk detailed his artistic work for films and fashion shows, adding: "I am not political, I am a humanist and a peaceful man. I never used violence or hurt anybody. I don’t use drugs, and I am not an alcoholic. I am not a criminal, I am just an artist. I’ve been in jail for two months now, my family suffer tremendously from this situation and it destroys me.”

Clerk believes he is being punished because of strained relations between Azerbaijan and France. 

"It’s unfair to punish me due to relations with France. I came here as a regular tourist with my friends. I do not represent France. We had not visited Azerbaijan among the Caucasus countries, so we decided to come here," he said according to Voice of America Azerbaijani service.

Relations between France and Azerbaijan have deteriorated over the past year. France, home to a large ethnic Armenia diaspora, has begun selling arms to Armenia and has criticised Baku’s invasion of Nagorno-Karabakh. It has also largely taken Yerevan’s side in its disputes with Baku. Paris has also accused Baku of inciting protests in France’s overseas territory of New Caledonia. 

A diplomatic source from France who spoke to bne IntelliNews on  condition of anonymity said that they were sure that the entire reason for Clerk's arrest was the fact that he was French, given the different treatment. "However, we don't have much leverage or power to do anything," they said.

The French foreign ministry’s warning about travel to Azerbaijan has been strongly criticised by the Azerbaijani authorities. 

"The claims made by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs regarding the unwarranted detention and arrest of French citizens are baseless," said Aykhan Hajiyev, spokesman for the Azerbaijan Ministry of Foreign Affairs, who urged France to "cease its defamatory campaign against Azerbaijan”.

The three foreigners stated in court that they are friends who travel to various countries and have engaged in graffiti in other places as well. They said they did not expect that drawing on a train in Azerbaijan would be considered hooliganism and lead to criminal charges.

de Saint Quentin and Han, who spoke to bne Intellinews in Baku, explained that they did the same acts in Yerevan and Tbilisi and other parts of the world and had never been arrested before.

This is not the first time graffiti artists have attempted to enter the Baku metro, which has become something of a holy grail for them. On March 26, 2016, Azerbaijani authorities arrested Belarusian citizen Ilyevskiy Sergei Timofeevich, who tried to access the Baku Metro through a ventilation system. 

During his arrest, police confiscated 10 paint tubes, 12 colour tubes, a Nikon camera, and a Sony video camera. Investigations revealed that he had previously attempted similar graffiti acts in Tbilisi and Yerevan. However, the criminal case against him was dropped on August 5, and he was released.

Additionally, the infamous graffiti duo Utah & Ether, often referred to as the "Bonnie and Clyde of the graffiti world”, also managed to sneak into the Baku Metro’s ventilation system to paint graffiti. They later repeated their exploits in Tbilisi and Yerevan. Unlike Timofeevich, the couple evaded arrest and went on to release a documentary and a book documenting their adventures.