Azerbaijan Pardons French Citizen as EU Lifts Sanctions on Russian Billionaire

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What the source reports

President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan pardoned 20 prisoners on Wednesday, including a French national jailed on espionage charges, shortly after the European Union removed Russian-Uzbek billionaire Alisher Usmanov from its sanctions list.Among those granted clemency under Aliyev’s decree was Martin Ryan, a French citizen arrested in late 2023 and sentenced by an Azerbaijani court in March to 10 years in prison.The pardons followed a broader diplomatic deal struck after France lobbied for Usmanov's delisting. The E.U.

Council announced Tuesday that it had…

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Source & verification

Primary source: OCCRP · September 23, 2026

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