“I feel relieved, happy to be with my loved ones”: Fabien Azoulay confides in BFMTV after his release from … – BFMTV

Convicted and imprisoned in Turkey since 2017 then extradited to France five months ago, Fabien Azoulay was released from the Health prison on Tuesday thanks to a modification of the sentence. He had been convicted of having a product considered to be narcotic delivered to Istanbul. But this Friday evening, testifying to BFMTV, he especially confided his relief to our journalist Jean-Baptiste Boursier.

“I feel much better than when I was imprisoned. I feel relieved, happy to be with my loved ones, my family, my friends.” These words are those of Fabien Azoulay. The 43-year-old man was released from prison on Tuesday thanks to a modified sentence. He confided this Friday, alongside his lawyer François Zimeray, to our journalist Jean-Baptiste Boursier.

Our interview comes three days after the end of a four-year prison period, initiated by his arrest in 2017 in Istanbul for having been delivered a prohibited substance and completed by five months of French detention.

Incarceration at the center of Franco-Turkish relations

On the merits of the case, Fabien Azoulay, who had originally made the trip to Turkey for hair implants, claims that he was unaware that the offending product, GBL, a solvent that can serve as a sexual stimulant, was prohibited. on the spot. “I bought a two-liter can – that was the minimum order quantity, for fun,” he tells BFMTV. He had, however, been sentenced to 17 years’ imprisonment for possession of a narcotic drug.

But it was above all the conditions of his detention that moved public opinion and placed his case at the center of discussions between Ankara and Paris. According to his lawyers and his entourage, his homosexuality and his religion – Judaism – earned him bullying and persecution in Turkish cells. Emmanuel Macron finally obtained his extradition to France on August 17, following discussions with Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Paris Criminal Court then reclassified his sentence as a conviction for “criminal association with a view to committing an offense” and “concealment of an offense”, and reduced his sentence to five years in prison. It must be said that French and Turkish legislation both take a very different view of GBL. Where Turkey sees it as a drug, France points to a “poisonous substance”.

“These simple gestures are a gift for me”

Today, Fabien Azoulay is very relieved. “I feel much better than when I was imprisoned. I feel relieved, happy to be with my loved ones, my family, my friends”, he confided to our journalist Jean-Baptiste Boursier, stressing: “I doesn’t fully realize it yet. It’s like a soft landing. “

He returned to his first moments of freedom on Tuesday. “My brother came to pick me up from the Health Prison. We went to have a coffee with one of my lawyers, and my brother,” he tells us. The decoration of the bistro seems to him a wink: “I had on one side the Statue of Liberty, on the other the Eiffel Tower. I, who am Franco-American, have on one side New York, the other Paris, it was quite symbolic. ” He then swallows a coffee, smokes a cigarette: “These simple gestures, for me, it was a gift.”

“I was afraid for my life several times”

Fabien Azoulay agreed to visit less pleasant memories. Like that of his sentence to 16 years and 8 months in prison. “The earth has opened up under my feet, even worse than my incarceration,” he recalled. And he finds himself in a prison universe which amazes him: “I discovered a bad detective film, cells with 50-60 people combined. I tell myself, it’s a film, a hidden camera. I tell myself that something is going on. happen.”

Although he notes that he “never introduced himself as a Jew or a homosexual”, his sexual orientation and his religion will weigh heavily on his existence in the penitentiaries. “I was scared for my life several times,” he said, illustrating: “An inmate assaulted me, who had arrived in the cell two days earlier. He sent me a kettle of hot water. on the body, the face, screaming ‘Allahu akbar‘. Clearly, someone had told him that I was Jewish or gay. “” Having a last name like mine is like a business card, with a stamp on it, “explains Fabien Azoulay.

“Wash my name and rebuild me”

He has known four prisons in four years, including the second 800 kilometers east of Istanbul. The last: the Health prison in Paris. If he expected to see his prolonged detention in France, he continues: “I did not expect to spend long in detention in France.” He set the course for the future: “Now that I am free, we will do everything to ensure that my name is cleared of this false accusation.” “How could a French tourist have known that this product was banned?” he argued.

However, he found a smile at the conclusion of this interview: “I’m going to rebuild myself, try to appreciate the little things in life, the autumn leaves, the Parisian cold. It’s a rebirth for me. And at one point or another, return home to New York. “