AZERBAIJAN PARDONS FRENCH NATIONAL JAILED FOR ESPIONAGE

Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev has pardoned Martin Ryan, a French national who also holds British citizenship, after he was jailed for ten years on spying charges. Ryan was arrested in 2023 and convicted in March. The pardon came a day after the European Union lifted sanctions on Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, which diplomats said followed pressure from Baku. Aliyev pardoned 20 people, including Azerbaijani, Turkish, Russian-Israeli and Pakistani nationals, with his office citing "personalities, state of health, family circumstances" among the reasons. It remained unclear whether Ryan had been released.

Prosecutors alleged Ryan gathered information on Azerbaijan's military ties with Turkey, Iran and Pakistan, and on companies linked to Russia and China. Ryan denied the charges, and France called them false, saying he had been caught in the crossfire of diplomatic tensions. A senior diplomat in Brussels told AFP that France had pushed the EU to lift sanctions on Usmanov as part of a potential prisoner deal with Baku. French water company executive Anass Derraz, jailed in Azerbaijan last year for accepting a bribe, was not among those pardoned.

France's Foreign Ministry said it welcomed "with relief" the clemency granted to Ryan, calling it "a humanitarian gesture" achieved through "patient and exacting dialogue" with Azerbaijani authorities. The EU agreed on Tuesday to extend sanctions on Russia in a compromise deal that saw Usmanov and Fridman removed from the sanctions list. It marked the first time the bloc delisted a member of Russia's wealthiest billionaire circle who had not condemned the war in Ukraine. Diplomats told Reuters that Paris had indicated Baku was using Usmanov to pressure it over two French citizens held there, an assertion Baku rejected.