Azerbaijan pardons jailed Frenchman Martin Ryan after EU lifts sanctions on Russian oligarchs

Presidential pardon in Baku

Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev issued an official decree on Wednesday, 23 September 2026, granting clemency to 20 convicted individuals. Among the recipients was Martin Ryan, a 38-year-old French businessman who had been residing and working in Azerbaijan since 2019. Azerbaijani security services arrested Ryan in December 2023 on accusations of espionage, which he consistently denied. A Baku court convicted him in March 2026 and sentenced him to ten years in prison, a verdict that an appeals court upheld in late July. The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs repeatedly demanded his immediate release, describing the charges as unfounded and characterizing his detention as arbitrary. Ryan was the only French national included in the decree, which according to the presidential office took into account the health and family circumstances of the pardoned prisoners.

European Union sanctions revision

The presidential pardon occurred one day after the European Union adjusted its sanctions regime against individuals and entities tied to Russia. On 22 September, EU member states agreed to extend asset freezes and travel restrictions for 36 months across a registry of nearly 3,000 Russian entities and individuals. However, European diplomats removed Russian billionaires Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman from the renewed sanctions list. The removal of Usmanov followed direct requests submitted by France and Luxembourg ahead of the expiration deadline. French authorities officially justified their push to remove Usmanov by citing national security considerations, though they declined to provide public details regarding the operational basis of the request.

Diplomatic bargaining over detainees

European diplomatic officials linked the delisting of Usmanov directly to negotiations over French prisoners held in Baku. Three European diplomats told Reuters that Paris privately explained its delisting request by indicating that Azerbaijan conditioned the release of two detained French citizens on Usmanov's removal from EU sanctions. A senior diplomat in Brussels told AFP that France sought an agreement covering French nationals in Azerbaijani custody as part of the sanctions negotiations. The Azerbaijani government denied exercising pressure on European sanctions policy or connecting the legal status of detainees to the Russian businessman. Usmanov, who holds dual Russian and Uzbek citizenship, had previously received diplomatic backing from both Aliyev and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Regional tensions and strategic energy ties

The diplomatic maneuvering took place against a backdrop of severely strained bilateral relations between Paris and Baku. Relations deteriorated in September 2023 after France openly supported Armenia during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh and subsequently agreed to supply military equipment to Yerevan. Aliyev accused the French government of attempting to provoke a new war in the South Caucasus through its military support for Armenia. Simultaneously, French President Emmanuel Macron sought to repair diplomatic channels with Baku while safeguarding French strategic partnerships across Central Asia. Sanctions against Usmanov had created diplomatic obstacles with Uzbekistan, the fifth-largest uranium producer globally, with which France concluded a civil nuclear energy partnership in 2025 to diversify its uranium supplies.