Azerbaijan pardons Frenchman jailed for spying, a day after EU lifts sanctions on Russian billionaires
President Ilham Aliyev has pardoned French national Martin Ryan, who was serving a 10-year espionage sentence, a day after the EU removed Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from its sanctions list.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has pardoned French national Martin Ryan, a day after the EU lifted sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov following what diplomats said was pressure from Baku. Reuters
Ryan had been serving a 10-year sentence in Baku after a spying conviction in March. Arrested in December 2023, he was accused of gathering secret information about Azerbaijan’s military cooperation with Turkey and Pakistan, and of helping to recruit French-speaking Azerbaijanis to cooperate with French intelligence. Before his arrest he worked for a food-import company in Azerbaijan that also provided consultancy services.
According to Aliyev’s office, Ryan was pardoned alongside 14 Azerbaijani citizens, two Turkish nationals, one dual Russian-Israeli citizen and one Pakistani citizen. Reuters
The EU delisted Usmanov and fellow Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman the day before — the first time Brussels removed sanctions on members of Russia’s billionaire elite who had not publicly condemned the war in Ukraine. Ukraine condemned the move as “shameful and unjustifiable”. The bloc had sanctioned both men in 2022 over allegations their businesses provided significant revenues to the Kremlin. Free Malaysia Today / AFP
Three European diplomats told Reuters that Paris had privately indicated Baku was using Usmanov’s sanctions case to pressure France over two French citizens held in Azerbaijan. A second Frenchman — Anass Derraz, a Saur water-company employee jailed for 12 years in 2025 on corruption charges — was not among those pardoned. A senior Azerbaijani diplomat rejected claims of a pressure campaign as “categorically unfounded”. Reuters
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