Azerbaijan pardons jailed Frenchman after EU lifts sanctions on Russian billionaire

The French national Martin Ryan was pardoned by Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday. The pardon came a day after the ⁠EU lifted sanctions on Russian billionaires following what ⁠diplomats said was pressure from Baku.

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

Ryan had ‌been serving a ten-year prison sentence in Baku ‌following a conviction in March.

A senior diplomat in Brussels had told AFP that France had pushed for the EU to lift sanctions on a Russian billionaire, seeking the release of French prisoners.

Three European diplomats told Reuters that Paris had indicated in private that Baku was using Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov to pressure it over the case of two French citizens held in Azerbaijan, an assertion rejected ⁠by Baku.

The EU agreed on Tuesday to extend sanctions on Russia in a compromise deal that will see Usmanov and another Russian billionaire Mikhail Fridman dropped from the blacklist, diplomats said.

Ukraine lashed out against the push to remove the asset freezes and visa bans on the two billionaires, arguing the European Union should instead be ratcheting up pressure on Moscow.

"Moscow is celebrating because it got what it wanted: a sense of impunity, the humiliation of the EU, and division among Europeans," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said on social media.

"But there is still a way to spoil the celebrations in Moscow. I urge all EU member states to announce now that they will impose their own national sanctions on these two individuals."

(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)