Azerbaijan pardons French businessman Martin Ryan after EU lifts sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree pardoning French businessman Martin Ryan and 19 other people.
In March, a court in Baku sentenced Ryan to 10 years in prison on charges of collecting information about the army during the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh.
According to media reports, Ryan’s release was part of a deal between Baku and Paris, under which France pushed for EU sanctions on Russian billionaire Alisher Usmanov to be lifted.
The European Union removed Usmanov, as well as a second Russian businessman, Mikhail Fridman, from its sanctions list on September 22.
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