OMM Redaksiyası
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has pardoned French national Martin Ryan, who was serving a 10-year prison sentence on espionage charges, according to Al Jazeera, AFP and Reuters.
Ryan, who was arrested in 2023 and sentenced in March 2025, was among 20 people pardoned by the Azerbaijani president’s office. The group also included Azerbaijani, Turkish, Russian-Israeli and Pakistani nationals.
The presidential website said the decision took into account the prisoners’ “personalities, state of health, family circumstances” and other considerations. It was not immediately clear whether Ryan had been released.
France welcomes clemency decision
France said it welcomed “with relief the decision to grant clemency” to Ryan, describing it as “a humanitarian gesture”.
“This decision is the result of patient and exacting dialogue with the Azerbaijani authorities,” the French Foreign Ministry said.
Ryan, who also holds British citizenship, denied the charges. French authorities had said the allegations were false and called for his immediate release, arguing that he had become caught up in diplomatic tensions.
Charges and diplomatic tensions
Prosecutors alleged that Ryan had collected information about Azerbaijan’s military ties with Türkiye, Iran and Pakistan, as well as companies linked to Russia and China.
Diplomats told Reuters and AFP that France had privately indicated Baku was using the European Union’s sanctions status for Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman to pressure Paris over detained French citizens. An Azerbaijani diplomat rejected the claim as “categorically unfounded”.
Ryan’s pardon came a day after the EU removed Usmanov from its sanctions list. A second French national, Anass Derraz, a Saur water company employee sentenced to 12 years in prison on corruption charges, was not included in the pardons.
Relations between Baku and Paris have been strained over France’s support for Armenia. Azerbaijan’s ties with Moscow have also deteriorated since the accidental downing of an Azerbaijani passenger aircraft by Russian forces in December 2024.
