Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev has decided to pardon twenty people, including citizens from Turkey, Russia, Pakistan and France. The list also includes French businessman Martin Ryan, who had previously been convicted of espionage. According to sources, Ryan’s release is linked to agreements between Baku and Paris. The French side, for its part, had been seeking the lifting of sanctions against Russian businessmen Alisher Usmanov and Mikhail Fridman, who, as it emerged on 22 September, had been removed from the European sanctions list.
Martin Ryan, CEO of Mercorama, was arrested in December 2023 and ultimately sentenced to ten years’ imprisonment for espionage. He denied the charges, but the investigation suggests that Ryan was carrying out tasks assigned to him by individuals operating under diplomatic cover, but who were believed to be agents of the French intelligence services. In particular, Ryan was accused of gathering information on Azerbaijan’s military equipment and personnel, including those who speak French and have studied abroad.
Interestingly, this is not the first time that France and Azerbaijan have exchanged pardons. In 2025, the French street artist Théo Claire, who was arrested for creating graffiti on metro trains in Baku, was also pardoned and returned home after more than a year in prison.
Relations between France and Azerbaijan have become strained in recent years, particularly following France’s support for Armenia in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Tensions rose after Armenia began purchasing French military equipment and Paris expressed its readiness to supply it with air defence missiles. It appears that the current exchange of pardons can be seen as an attempt to re-establish diplomatic channels and ease tensions between the two countries.