Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has pardoned Martin Ryan, a French national who was serving a 10-year prison sentence on spying charges.
The pardon was issued on Wednesday, one day after the European Union lifted sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov. European diplomats said the move followed pressure exerted by Baku.
Ryan was arrested in 2023 and sentenced in March. He was among 20 people pardoned by Aliyev's office, alongside Azerbaijani, Turkish, Russian-Israeli and Pakistani nationals, according to reports. Aliyev's office said the president took into account their "personalities, state of health, family circumstances" and other reasons in deciding to grant the pardons.
It remained unclear whether Ryan had been released.
France welcomed "with relief the decision to grant clemency" to Ryan, calling it "a humanitarian gesture", according to a French Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement. "This decision is the result of patient and exacting dialogue with the Azerbaijani authorities."
Prosecutors had alleged that Ryan gathered information on Azerbaijan's military ties with Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, as well as on companies linked to Russia and China. Ryan, who also holds British citizenship, denied the charges. France said the allegations against him were false and had called for his immediate release, arguing he had been caught in the crossfire of diplomatic tensions.
A second French national, Anass Derraz, an employee of French water company Saur who was sentenced to 12 years on corruption charges, was not included in the pardons.
European diplomats told sources that France had privately indicated Baku was using Usmanov's sanctions status to pressure Paris over its detained citizens. An Azerbaijani diplomat rejected suggestions of a pressure campaign as "categorically unfounded".
The delisting of Usmanov and fellow Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman marked the first time the EU removed sanctions on some of the wealthiest members of Russia's billionaire elite who had not publicly condemned the war in Ukraine.
Usmanov, who once held a minority stake in Arsenal football club, graduated from the same prestigious diplomatic school in Moscow as the presidents of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and knows them personally.
Slovakia initially called for Usmanov's removal from the sanctions list, with France later backing the move. Latvia abstained from the vote and said it would impose its own sanctions on the two men. Latvia's Foreign Minister Baiba Braze called the EU decision "dangerous".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the move reflected Russian efforts "to break the West's unity". His Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Moscow was "celebrating, because it got what it wanted: a sense of impunity, the humiliation of the EU, and division among Europeans".
Relations between Baku and Paris have long been strained by France's support for Armenia, even as ties between Moscow and Baku have also deteriorated following the accidental downing of an Azerbaijani passenger jet by Russian forces in December 2024.
