Fabien Azoulay, victim of abuse in detention in Turkey, demands his transfer to France. – DR
- Fabien Azoulay was sentenced in Turkey to 16 years and 8 months in prison for buying GBL, a solvent classified as a narcotic in the country.
- Homosexual and of Jewish faith, the 43-year-old man has been the victim, since his imprisonment, of multiple physical and psychological abuse.
- His lawyers and relatives are now appealing to the Head of State to complete his request for transfer to France.
For more than three years, the relatives and lawyers of Fabien Azoulay have remained silent. “We played the game of justice and that of diplomacy. But nothing is moving, ”criticizes Me Carole-Olivia Montenot. So on April 8, they decided to lift the veil on the ordeal endured by this 43-year-old Frenchman, imprisoned since September 2017 in Turkish jails. Sentenced to 16 years and 8 months in prison for having bought GBL, a solvent classified as narcotic by local authorities during a stay in Istanbul, Fabien Azoulay was the victim of physical and psychological abuse during his detention.
“His condition is very worrying. For him, it is impossible to hold a fourth year, ”breathes Sophie Wiesenfeld, doctor of law and president of the support committee for the forties. After his conviction, Fabien Azoulay requested his transfer to France. But according to his relatives, this request remained a dead letter on the Turkish side. “It is a collateral victim of the bad diplomatic relations between France and Turkey”, analyzes the president of the support committee. To mobilize public opinion, a petition was launched last week and his entourage is now appealing to the Head of State.
“He takes a lot of medication”
Fabien Azoulay should have stayed only a few days in Istanbul. Like many French people, this manager of a spa in New York travel for an implant transplant capillaries. When he arrives at the hotel, he orders over the Internet from GBL. This industrial solvent, also used as a sexual stimulant, was classified a few months earlier as a narcotic by Turkey. ” He did not know it. The product was intercepted by customs, the police followed the package and when Fabien wanted to recover it, he was arrested, ”says Carole-Olivia Montenot, one of his lawyers. On February 27, 2018, Turkish courts sentenced him to 20 years in prison, reduced to 16 years and 8 months.
Incarcerated near the Turkish capital, Fabien Azoulay was subjected to aggravated violence from his fellow inmate. Homosexual and of Jewish faith, the Frenchman was burned and his fellow inmate condemned for the abuse he inflicted on him. Since then, Fabien Azoulay has been transferred to a prison located in Giresun, 800 kilometers from Istanbul. But his condition and conditions of detention remain very worrying, denounces the president of his support committee: “He takes a lot of drugs, antidepressants. He sends heartbreaking, unbearable letters. Many Islamists are detained in the same establishment, he is regularly summoned by his fellow prisoners to convert to Islam, ”she explains.
“Nothing has changed”
Worried about his life, his lawyers are now calling for a humanitarian solution. Formalized since November 2019, his transfer request “has not seen any change”, pointed out his advice in their press release issued on April 8. “We were received at the Quai d’Orsay, which promised us that this file would be treated as a priority. But during a last meeting in March, we found that nothing had changed, ”explains Carole-Olivia Montenot.
Contacted by 20 minutes, a French diplomatic source assures for its part that “the services of the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in Paris and our embassy in Turkey have fully mobilized […] and from the start of his imprisonment, he was thus able to benefit from consular visits ”. “Anxious to guarantee him better security conditions in detention, the French authorities intervened quickly with the local authorities so that our compatriot could benefit from a transfer to a new Turkish prison in January 2020”, she adds, specifying that the consular services were “in regular contact” with the Turkish authorities “to inquire about his situation and the progress of his request for transfer to France”.
Fabien Azoulay, a French national in Turkey has been held in prison for almost 4 years.
Every day he is harassed, beaten and raped for being Jewish and homosexual.@EmmanuelMacron, we are asking for his transfer to a French prison.https://t.co/bshzUwKk0A– UEJF (@uejf) April 11, 2021
Since the media coverage of this affair, the mobilization has intensified in France. The petition in support of Fabien Azoulay has already collected more than 40,000 signatures. Elected officials from all sides, associations fighting against anti-Semitism and defending the rights of LGBTQ + were also moved by this situation this weekend on social networks, calling on Emmanuel Macron to act. “We want concrete results. We are not asking France to challenge the sentence handed down by Turkish justice. All we want is for Fabien to be able to purge it in France, close to his family, ”concludes Sophie Wiesenfeld.