France investigates Thales contracts in Azerbaijan as former Baku executive remains imprisoned

French inquiry puts Azerbaijan contracts under scrutiny

France's National Financial Prosecutor's Office has been investigating suspected corruption in overseas contracts involving Thales since June 2023, including the defense and technology group's operations in Azerbaijan. Investigators searched company facilities in June 2024 as part of an inquiry into suspected irregularities in sales of military and civilian equipment abroad.

The investigation has drawn renewed attention to Mehmet Sahan, a 48-year-old French and Turkish citizen who headed the company's Baku representative office from May 2014 to April 2021. Detained in Azerbaijan on February 17, 2022, following a complaint by his former employer, he denies accusations that he embezzled approximately €5 million in company operating funds.

An Azerbaijani court upheld his 10-year prison sentence in April 2026 following convictions for embezzlement and document forgery. Sahan says his prosecution was retaliation for looking into suspected corruption surrounding Thales's local business relationships. Thales rejects allegations connecting it to corruption and says the Azerbaijani judgments establish that it was the victim of his misconduct.

These are distinct legal proceedings: an Azerbaijani case against a former employee and a French investigation into international business dealings. The French inquiry does not itself prove Sahan's allegations, while his conviction does not resolve what French prosecutors are examining.

What French prosecutors are investigating

The French inquiry concerns suspected irregularities in the sale of both military and civilian equipment outside France. Azerbaijan is among the countries whose Thales contracts are under scrutiny, but the investigation's scope is broader than the dispute with Sahan.

Searches took place in June 2024, a year after the investigation began. Reports describe searches at company premises in several countries. The precise contracts, customers, payment arrangements and evidence obtained during those searches have not been identified in the accounts of the case.

A search allows investigators to collect material that may help establish whether an offense occurred. It is not a finding of guilt. No outcome of the French investigation, or date for its completion, has been reported.

Thales declined to comment on the ongoing investigation. Separately, it rejected allegations linking the company to corruption as unfounded and misleading, and reaffirmed its policy of zero tolerance toward illegal conduct. That distinction matters: declining to discuss a prosecutorial inquiry is not an admission, and a corporate denial does not settle the allegations under examination.

From regional responsibilities to imprisonment

Sahan spent almost seven years running Thales's representative office in Baku. His responsibilities expanded in January 2020 to include Ukraine and Georgia, placing him in a role that extended beyond Azerbaijan before his employment ended in April 2021.

A father of four, he was detained less than a year later. He now disputes both the financial accusations against him and the fairness of the proceedings that produced his prison sentence.

The sequence places his career, detention and the French investigation on separate but overlapping timelines:

• May 2014: Sahan began running Thales's Baku representative office.
• January 2020: His responsibilities expanded to Ukraine and Georgia.
• April 2021: His tenure at the Baku office ended.
• February 17, 2022: Azerbaijani authorities detained him.
• June 2023: France's National Financial Prosecutor's Office began its investigation into overseas Thales contracts.
• June 2024: Investigators searched Thales facilities.
• April 2026: An Azerbaijani court upheld his 10-year sentence.

The dated chronology establishes more than four years between his detention and the April 2026 ruling. Descriptions of his imprisonment as approaching five years depend on when they were written; the fixed starting point is February 17, 2022.

The local partners behind Sahan's allegations

Sahan's explanation for his prosecution centers on the intermediaries and partners through which Thales conducted business in Azerbaijan. According to him, the company relied on VES Consultancy, an advisory business headquartered in Baku, and Concept.com, an industrial partner headquartered in Luxembourg.

Both entities were connected to Khagani Bashirov, an Azerbaijani national born in 1961 who became a French citizen in 2008. He was associated with the companies as a shareholder or director. That shared connection is a specific part of Sahan's account, although it does not by itself establish that either business engaged in wrongdoing.

Bashirov described his own relationship with the defense group in a 2020 interview:

a consultant for Thales in Azerbaijan between 2002 and 2017.

The period he identified overlaps with the first three years of Sahan's leadership in Baku. It also places his stated consultancy relationship well before Sahan's appointment. The precise work performed, payments received and contractual responsibilities of the two businesses have not been established in the reporting on this case.

Thales explained that it used local partners in foreign countries where its own expertise was insufficient. The company described working with such partners as a common industry practice, while acknowledging their exposure to compliance risks:

considered among the third parties most exposed to the risk of corruption or influence peddling.

Corruption can involve providing a benefit to improperly influence a decision. Influence peddling involves trading on access or influence over decision makers. An intermediary's exposure to these risks is not proof of an offense, but it explains why the services provided and the reasons for payments can matter in an investigation into overseas contracts.

Two sharply different accounts of the criminal case

Azerbaijani courts convicted Sahan of embezzlement and document forgery. The financial accusation concerns approximately €5 million in operating funds, which he denies taking. Thales maintains that the judgments conclusively established that he forged documents and diverted company money.

Sahan gives a different account. He believes his efforts to examine potential corruption networks connected to Thales's activities in Azerbaijan led to his downfall. He describes the proceedings against him as a "judicial parody." That is his allegation, not a conclusion reached by the French prosecutors investigating the company's contracts.

Reports also differ in how they describe the €4 million financial order accompanying his sentence. One account calls it a fine; another says the court ordered €4 million in compensation. A fine is a punitive financial sanction, while compensation ordinarily addresses a loss. Without the judgment's precise wording, those descriptions should not be treated as interchangeable.

The approximately €5 million allegedly embezzled and the €4 million ordered by the court are separate figures. The reporting does not explain how the court calculated the latter amount or why it differs from the alleged loss.

Thales has also condemned what it described as deliberate manipulation of the facts that could damage its reputation. Its position directly contradicts Sahan's claim of retaliation. No reported finding from the French inquiry establishes a causal link between his scrutiny of local partners and his Azerbaijani prosecution.

Health concerns and appeals to France

Sahan's legal dispute is accompanied by concerns about his deteriorating health in prison. His lawyers have called for his repatriation, and he has appealed to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and the French state.

In written messages describing his situation, Sahan expressed fear that he would not survive his detention:

I am risking my life.

No specific diagnosis, independent medical assessment or detailed treatment record has been reported. His statements establish the urgency of his appeal, but do not allow an independent assessment of his condition or the medical care he is receiving.

France's Foreign Ministry said it was closely monitoring his situation. It declined to discuss the substance of the case or address concerns about his health. That response leaves unanswered what consular or medical assistance has been provided and whether a request for repatriation is being pursued.

The French state owns 27% of Thales, adding a public dimension to a dispute involving a major defense company and a French citizen imprisoned abroad. That shareholding does not establish government responsibility for the alleged conduct, nor does it determine the outcome of either legal proceeding.

A diplomatic precedent, but no announced resolution

Another French citizen detained in Azerbaijan, Martin Ryan, received a pardon on September 23. France secured his release in an exchange involving the lifting of sanctions on two Russian oligarchs, an arrangement that upset its European partners. The year of that September 23 agreement is not specified in the reporting used to describe the precedent.

Ryan's release shows that a negotiated resolution has occurred in another French detention case in Azerbaijan. It does not establish that a comparable arrangement is being considered for Sahan, whose circumstances and convictions are different.

No pardon, release agreement or repatriation date has been announced for Sahan. Nor has a subsequent hearing or a deadline for a decision been identified following the April 2026 ruling upholding his sentence.

The central unresolved issues remain separate: what French investigators will establish about Thales's overseas dealings, whether Sahan can obtain further legal relief, and how his health concerns will be addressed. A comprehensive account must keep those questions distinct while recognizing that they converge on the same former executive and the company's Azerbaijan operations.

Key Points

• French financial prosecutors began investigating overseas Thales contracts in June 2023, including business in Azerbaijan.
• Investigators searched company facilities in June 2024; no outcome of the French inquiry has been reported.
• Mehmet Sahan has been detained since February 17, 2022. An Azerbaijani court upheld his 10-year sentence in April 2026.
• Sahan denies embezzling approximately €5 million and alleges retaliation for examining suspected corruption. Thales rejects his account.
• Reports describe the accompanying €4 million order differently, as either a fine or compensation.
• Sahan's lawyers seek repatriation amid health concerns. France says it is monitoring his situation, but no release date has been announced.