20 Prisoners Pardoned by Azerbaijan, Including French National

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev pardoned Martin Ryan, a French national serving a 10-year sentence on espionage charges, Aliyev's office said Wednesday. Ryan was one of 20 people pardoned in the group, Al Jazeera reported, citing Reuters.

Who is Martin Ryan?

Ryan, who holds both French and British citizenship, was arrested in Azerbaijan in 2023. He was sentenced in March on spying charges. He denied wrongdoing throughout the case, according to Al Jazeera. He appeared in a Baku courtroom in January 2025 for the trial that led to his conviction.

Why was he sentenced to 10 years?

Prosecutors alleged Ryan gathered information on Azerbaijan's military ties with Turkiye, Iran and Pakistan, plus data on companies linked to Russia and China, Al Jazeera reported. France rejected the allegations as false. Paris called for his immediate release, arguing he had been caught in diplomatic tensions between the two countries.

What role did the EU sanctions have?

The pardon came one day after the European Union lifted sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov, according to Al Jazeera. Diplomats described the delisting as the product of pressure from Baku. European diplomats told Reuters and AFP that France had privately indicated Azerbaijan was using Usmanov's sanctions status as a bargaining chip in talks over detained French citizens. An Azerbaijani diplomat called that characterization "categorically unfounded."

Usmanov and fellow Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman were the first members of Russia's wealthiest sanctioned elite to be delisted by the EU without having publicly condemned the war in Ukraine, Al Jazeera reported. Usmanov, a former minority stakeholder in Arsenal football club, attended the same Moscow diplomatic school as the presidents of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan and knows them personally.

Who else was pardoned, and who was left out?

The 20 pardoned individuals included Azerbaijani, Turkish, Russian-Israeli and Pakistani nationals, Reuters reported. Aliyev's office said it weighed each person's "personalities, state of health, family circumstances" in granting clemency.

A second French national, Anass Derraz, an employee of French water company Saur serving a 12-year sentence on corruption charges, was not among those pardoned.

By the numbers

• 10 years: Ryan's original espionage sentence, handed down in March
• 20: total prisoners pardoned in the group, including Ryan
• 12 years: sentence for Anass Derraz, the French national excluded from the pardon
• 2023: year Ryan was arrested

Has Ryan been released?

Al Jazeera reported it remained unclear whether Ryan had been freed following the pardon announcement.

How did France and Ukraine react?

France's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it welcomed "with relief the decision to grant clemency" to Ryan, calling it "a humanitarian gesture." The ministry added: "This decision is the result of patient and exacting dialogue with the Azerbaijani authorities."

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the sanctions reversal reflected Russian efforts "to break the West's unity." Ukraine's Foreign Minister, Andrii Sybiha, said Moscow was "celebrating, because it got what it wanted," according to Al Jazeera.