Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday pardoned a French national imprisoned for espionage a day after the EU lifted sanctions on two Russian billionaires.
French national Martin Ryan was pardoned by Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on Wednesday, one day after the EU lifted sanctions on two Russian billionaires following what diplomats said was pressure from Baku.
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.
France welcomed "with relief the decision to grant clemency" to Ryan, calling it "a humanitarian gesture", according to a French Ministry of Foreign Affairs statement.
"This decision is the result of patient and exacting dialogue with the Azerbaijani authorities."
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 as part of a potential prisoner deal with Azerbaijan.
Luxembourg then demanded sanctions be lifted from fellow billionaire Mikhail Fridman, who is suing the European country over his frozen assets.
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.
Read moreEU to lift sanctions on Russian billionaires Usmanov, Fridman
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."
'Past misunderstandings'
France's push to have Usmanov removed riled other EU member states, some of whom argued lifting sanctions for political reasons set a dangerous precedent.
The widow of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, criticised the decision in a Telegram post late Tuesday.
"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.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP and Reuters)
