Azerbaijan to File Defamation Suit against French Journalists

French journalist Elise Lucet asking Mehriban Aliyeva if she believes Azerbaijan is a land of tolerance in Paris.

A defamation suit against French journalists Elise Lucet, Laurent Richard and Cash Investigation will be filed by lawyer Olivier Pardo on behalf of the Republic of Azerbaijan according to the French publication L’Express.

When French journalist Elise Lucet asked Azerbaijan's First Lady Mehriban Aliyev, whether she really believed that Azerbaijan was a land of tolerance during a photo exhibition in Paris called Azerbaijan, Land of Tolerance, Mrs. Aliyev said, "Yes, of course."

When pressed about her country's human rights record and the fact that it had many political prisoners behind bars, including Leyla Yunus and Khadija Ismayilova, the First Lady said, "How can you say that? It's not true…get correct information."

As Mrs. Aliyev was whisked away, her bodyguards pushed Elise Lucet away and did not allow her to ask any more questions.

The exhibition was organized by the Heydar Aliyev Foundation and took place in the center of Paris. Mehriban Aliyeva runs the foundation, named after her late father-in-law, who was president of Azerbaijan for a decade prior to his 2003 death.

French President Hollande with Mehriban Aliyeva.

Lucet's report was broadcast on French national television by Cash Investigation on September 7. According to lawyer Olivier Pardo, the authorities in Azerbaijan are “unhappy with the program and will file a complaint against the news organization, Elise Lucet and the host [Laurent Richard]” for coining the country as one of the most “ferocious dictatorships in the world.”

While in Paris, Mehriban Aliyeva had met with several high-ranking French officials, including French President Francois Hollande.

According to Aliyeva’s personal website, she met with Hollande on September 3 at the Elysee Palace. “Francois Hollande said France and Azerbaijan have built successful relations in such fields as  economy, energy, information and communication technologies, space industry, agriculture etc.  Noting that France was interested in extending relations with Azerbaijan, Francois Hollande expressed confidence these bilateral relations would be  successfully developed in future too,” the website states.

First Lady Mehriban Aliyeva said Azerbaijani-French relations reached the level of “strategic partnership, adding that deepening ties with France is among her country's key foreign policy priorities.”