The Court of Appeal of France did not accept the Azerbaijani lawsuit, European Armenian Federation for Justice & Democracy reported.

The court ruled that Azerbaijan, as a foreign state, cannot bring an action for defamation in accordance with the law on freedom of the press adopted in 1881, Le Monde reported.

Journalist Elise Lucet also commented on the court's decision, tweeting that Azerbaijan lost in "Cash Investigation”, while freedom of speech has prevailed.

As reported earlier, the French journalists accused by Azerbaijan's government of defamation for calling the country a "dictatorship" appeared for a hearing at a French court Tuesday, in an unusual case that activists call an effort to export censorship.

The hearing came as multiple European news organizations published a joint investigation Tuesday  which showed that, Azerbaijan’s ruling elite operated a secret $2.9bn fund for two years to pay prominent Europeans, buy luxury goods and launder money through a network of opaque British companies.

Media watchdog Reporters Without Borders testified for the defense of  journalists Elise Lucet and Laurent Richard, as did an Azerbaijani journalist and Azerbaijani human rights activists living in exile.