Free.
Five letters that drummed like hope since his transfer to France in August.
The French Fabien Azoulay, detained since September 2017 in Turkey on the grounds of his conviction for drug trafficking, transferred to a penitentiary center on his arrival in France on August 17, "left the prison of Health today free" , announce his lawyers in a press release.
“For Fabien it is the end of a long ordeal and for us a moving victory, write Carole-Olivia Montenot and François Zimeray.
Four years of unjust and brutal detention which will mark him for life, they recall.
This outcome owes everything to the obstinacy of its support, to legal rigor and diplomacy ”.
1/2 FABIEN AZOULAY IS FREE!
Declaration of the lawyers “Fabien Azoulay left the prison of Health today free.
It is for him the end of a long ordeal and for us a moving victory (…) Convinced of his innocence, we never gave in to discouragement »pic.twitter.com/pI6RuoYO5P
- Zimeray & Finelle Avocats (@zimerayfinelle) November 2, 2021
2/2 FABIEN AZOULAY LIBRE!
“4 years of unjust and brutal detention which will mark him for life.
This outcome owes everything to the obstinacy of its support, to legal rigor and diplomacy ”@francoiszimeray @carolemontenot @EmmanuelMacron @Paris @CBeaune @francediplo pic.twitter.com/zq5MU7cCwe
- Zimeray & Finelle Avocats (@zimerayfinelle) November 2, 2021
Now 43 years old, the Franco-American who ran a spa in New York, went to Istanbul to undergo a hair transplant in September 2017. He had ordered a bottle of GBL via the Internet. Ten months earlier, this solvent diverted by disinhibiting mixed with cocktails had been classified as narcotic, therefore banned, by Turkey, which, according to his lawyers and his family, the young man was unaware of. He had been arrested by the Istanbul police at the time of delivery to his hotel. Five months later, at the end of a twenty-minute trial, the Istanbul Assize Court had sentenced him to twenty years' imprisonment for trafficking, reduced to 16 years and 8 months in prison by the interplay of reductions in sentences. . At the end of a long diplomacy process, Turkish President Erdogan accepted the request for the transfer to France of the prisoner, who,Jewish and homosexual, was regularly threatened in Giresun prison, 900 km from Istanbul.
Here is the letter that my friend @FabienHAzoulay who is still awaiting his release asked me to publish for the attention of his family, his friends, his relatives, the known, the anonymous.
#FabienAzoulay pic.twitter.com/dtloPgytBB
- E. David Benaym (@benaym) October 26, 2021
On October 1, the French justice reduced Fabien Azoulay's sentence to five years, inflicting the maximum penalty provided for his offense.
But he remained incarcerated.
His lawyers had then immediately formed a request for an adjustment of his sentence, which he therefore obtained before being released on Tuesday.
A week ago, in a letter sent by a friend, Fabien Azoulay thanked all the people who had helped or supported him during these long years of “hell”.
He will now be able to do it in person.