00:01Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev signed a decree on Wednesday pardoning several convicted individuals,
00:07including French citizen Martin Ryan.
00:09The French businessman had been detained there since December 2023,
00:13accused by Baku of espionage and sentenced to 10 years in prison.
00:17Paris contested the legal proceedings, deeming them arbitrary and unfair.
00:22His release comes the day after European sanctions were renewed
00:26against more than 2,600 individuals and entities considered to be close to the Kremlin
00:30or supporting Russia's war on Ukraine.
00:34Ryan's release was part of a wider agreement with France
00:36tied to the delisting of Uzbek-Russian oligarch Alisher Usmanov from the EU sanctions list.
00:42Paris hailed this as a humanitarian gesture
00:45and a step towards normalizing relations with Baku.
00:48Another French citizen, Anastir Raz, who's accused of accepting a Russian bribe,
00:53remains in detention in Azerbaijan for the time being.
