BAKU, Sept 23 (Reuters) – Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned a French national imprisoned for espionage on Wednesday, a day after the EU lifted sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov following what diplomats said was pressure from Baku.
The Frenchman, Martin Ryan, had been serving a 10-year prison sentence in Baku following a spying conviction in March. It was not immediately clear whether he had been released.
Three European diplomats told Reuters that Paris had privately indicated that Baku was using Usmanov’s sanctions case to pressure France over two French citizens held in Azerbaijan.
French weekly Challenges identified the second jailed French national as Anass Derraz, an employee of French water management company Saur. Derraz was sentenced to 12 years in prison in 2025 on corruption charges and was not among those pardoned on Wednesday.
A senior Azerbaijani diplomat rejected the allegations of a pressure campaign as “categorically unfounded” this week, saying Baku had openly supported Usmanov’s removal from Western sanctions lists but denied any attempt to influence Western decision-making.
Relations between Baku and Paris have long been strained over France’s close ties to Armenia, Azerbaijan’s neighbour and rival in a series of conflicts over the past four decades. France has a large Armenian diaspora and supplies arms to Yerevan.
SANCTIONS DELISTING CAUSED RIFT IN EU
The delisting of Usmanov and fellow Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman was the first time the EU removed sanctions on members of Russia’s billionaire elite who had not publicly condemned the war in Ukraine.
The decision exposed divisions among EU governments that had hoped a recent change of government in Hungary would help forge a more united stance towards Moscow after years in which former Prime Minister Viktor Orban complicated efforts to renew sanctions and support Ukraine.
Ukraine condemned the delistings as “shameful and unjustifiable.”
The EU imposed sanctions on Fridman and Usmanov in 2022, after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, including travel and transaction bans and asset freezes within the bloc.
Usmanov, a metals and mining magnate, has mounted multiple legal challenges in Europe seeking to overturn the sanctions. His lawyers have also disputed media reports cited by the EU as grounds for the measures.
Ryan, the Frenchman pardoned on Wednesday, was arrested in December 2023 and accused of gathering secret information about Azerbaijan’s military cooperation with Turkey and Pakistan. Baku had also accused him of helping to recruit French-speaking Azerbaijanis to cooperate with French intelligence.
Before his arrest, Ryan worked in Azerbaijan for a food-import company 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.
(Reporting by Nailia Bagirova; Additional reporting by Dominique Vidalon; Writing by Lucy Papachristou; Editing by Gleb Bryanski and Ros Russell)
