Il Nuovo Postiglione - Azerbaijan pardons Frenchman after EU lifts sanctions on oligarchs

President Ilham Aliyev pardoned 20 people in total, having taken into account their "personalities, state of health, family circumstances" and other reasons, his website said.

French water company executive Anass Derraz, jailed in Azerbaijan last year for accepting a bribe, was not included on the list.

A senior diplomat in Brussels told AFP that France had pushed for the EU to lift sanctions on Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov in exchange for Ryan's release, among other French prisoners held in Azerbaijan.

Luxembourg had then demanded sanctions be lifted from fellow billionaire Mikhail Fridman, who is suing the European country over his frozen assets.

Ryan, a businessman, was arrested in December 2023 while relations between Azerbaijan and France had deteriorated over Paris's support for Armenia, Baku's longtime rival.

A court in March found him guilty of spying against Azerbaijan and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.

Ryan, who also holds British citizenship, denied the charges.

France said the allegations against him were false and had called for his immediate release, arguing he had been caught in the crossfire of diplomatic tensions.

Azerbaijan's move came after the EU took Russian oligarchs Usmanov and Fridman off its sanctions list.

Brussels had sanctioned Usmanov and Fridman following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, over allegations their businesses provided significant revenues to the Kremlin.

Usmanov's link to Azerbaijan was not immediately clear.

France's push to have him removed riled other EU member states, some of whom argued lifting sanctions for political reasons set a dangerous precedent.

Ukraine described the move as "shameful", while Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, criticised the decision in a Telegram post late Tuesday.

- 'Past misunderstandings' -

"Thanks, European Commission, for another reminder that in high-level politics, money still speaks louder than principles," she said.

The Kremlin said it backed taking Usmanov and Fridman off the blacklist and that the bloc should lift sanctions on "all Russian businessmen".

There was no immediate reaction from France to Ryan's release, and Aliyev's statement made no reference to Usmanov.

Ryan's pardoning comes amid a thaw in relations between France and Azerbaijan, which had long festered over Paris's support for Armenia.

In October, Aliyev said that "past misunderstandings between the two countries have been resolved", after meeting French President Emmanuel Macron in Copenhagen.

M.Dodaro--INP