French court jails men over plot to kill exiled Azerbaijani blogger

Mahammad Mirzali

A French court has sentenced eight men to prison terms of up to 30 years for the attempted murder of an exiled Azerbaijani blogger.

Mahammad Mirzali, a prominent critic of the government in Baku, survived a knife attack in the western city of Nantes in March 2021.

On Wednesday, the Rennes Special Assize Court sentenced the mastermind of the attack, Emin Gasimov, to 30 years in prison.

Rovshan Gojayev, who was tried in absentia, was sentenced to 25 years. Three other accomplices received sentences of between 13 and 18 years, while three men were handed five-year terms. One defendant was acquitted.

All those convicted were also handed lifetime bans from entering France.

Media freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders (RSF) welcomed the ruling, calling it a landmark decision against "transnational repression".

The court ruled that the attack was politically motivated, aiming to intimidate government opponents living in exile.

Jeanne Cavelier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said the verdict sent a clear warning to authoritarian regimes.

This shows that French justice is capable of responding resolutely to the violence of transnational repression," Ms Cavelier said. "No state can cross borders to crush dissent."

The trial was held under tight security due to the defendants' suspected links to organised crime networks.

Evidence presented in court included wiretap recordings from Gasimov's prison cell, where he was heard asking a relative to seek help from Azerbaijan's Interior Minister, Vilayat Eyvazov.

Mr Mirzali, who runs a popular YouTube channel and was granted political asylum in France in 2016, has lived under 24/7 police protection since the attack.

In September 2025, he was sentenced in absentia to six and a half years in prison by an Azerbaijani court on charges of inciting mass riots.

The Azerbaijani government has repeatedly denied any involvement in the plot to kill him.

In a 2021 interview, President Ilham Aliyev dismissed the allegations of state involvement and accused RSF of running a biased campaign against the country.