Azerbaijan Pardons Théo Clerc, the Frenchman Imprisoned for Graffiti in the Metro


France – La Provence, May 26, 2025

The French artist had been sentenced to three years in prison for tagging a metro car in Baku, while his two co-defendants—a New Zealander and an Australian—received only fines for the same offense.

Azerbaijan on Monday pardoned a Frenchman who had been sentenced in September 2024 to three years in prison for graffiti in the Baku metro, amid tensions between France and the Caucasus country. Théo Hugo Clerc, 38, whose sentence was denounced by Paris as “arbitrary,” was pardoned by a decree from President Ilham Aliyev, which covers a total of 220 individuals.

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