President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev pardoned French citizen Martin Ryan, who had been imprisoned since 2023 on espionage charges; this happened the day after the EU lifted sanctions against two Russian billionaires. News.Az reports, writes UNN.
Details
According to the official website of the President of Azerbaijan, on September 23, President Aliyev signed a decree pardoning a number of convicted persons.
Five foreign nationals are among those pardoned.
French citizen Martin Ryan was sentenced to 10 years in prison by a verdict of the Baku Court for Serious Crimes dated March 16, 2026.
According to the indictment, Martin Ryan was suspected of receiving assignments and engaging in activities related to the collection of information about weapons and ammunition manufactured in Azerbaijan.
This also concerned the equipment of the Azerbaijani army during the 44-day war of 2020; individuals who are or were serving in the Armed Forces of Azerbaijan; people who received education in French abroad; and foreign citizens and legal entities operating in Azerbaijan.
It also concerned the organization of secret transfers of funds through Azerbaijan to other countries on the instructions of French intelligence; Azerbaijan’s relations and cooperation with the United Kingdom, Algeria, Turkey, Pakistan, Iran, China, Somalia, the countries of Central Asia and other states; as well as military cooperation plans and imported weapons.
He was detained by the State Security Service of Azerbaijan on December 4, 2023. Martin Ryan, the CEO of Merkorama LLC, was charged with espionage.
According to the indictment, employees of France’s Directorate-General for External Security (DGSE), who were subsequently declared persona non grata and expelled from Baku, recruited Martin Ryan for secret cooperation and used him as a spy agent.
In this criminal case, Martin Ryan was charged under Article 276 of the Criminal Code of the Republic of Azerbaijan — espionage.
Additional information
As UNN previously reported, Paris demanded that Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov be removed from the EU sanctions list. France officially cited national security considerations. However, it is known in Brussels that Azerbaijan is pressuring Paris, promising to release two French citizens in exchange for a concession in the Usmanov case.