Azerbaijan's president on Wednesday pardoned Martin Ryan, a Frenchman jailed since 2023 on espionage charges, following the European Union's removal of two Russian billionaires from its sanctions list.
President Ilham Aliyev pardoned 20 people in total, having taken into account their "personalities, state of health, family circumstances" and other reasons, his office said.
The head of France's DGSE foreign intelligence agency, Nicolas Lerner, accompanied Ryan on his trip back home, an informed source told AFP, confirming reports from an Azerbaijani broadcaster.
Ryan's father thanked the French state for securing his son's release.
"We are delighted our son Martin is returning to France after nearly three years in detention," Richard Ryan told AFP.
"We commend the efforts of the various parties who worked to secure his release," he added. "We are grateful to the state services."
The French foreign ministry praised the "humanitarian gesture".
"This decision is the result of a patient and exacting dialogue with the Azerbaijani authorities, which we intend to continue," the ministry said.
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 had then demanded sanctions be lifted from fellow billionaire Mikhail Fridman, who is suing the European country over his frozen assets.
Ryan was arrested in December 2023 at a time when relations between Azerbaijan and France had deteriorated over Paris's support for Armenia, Baku's longtime rival.
A court in March found him guilty of spying against Azerbaijan and sentenced him to 10 years in prison.
Ryan, who also holds British citizenship, denied the charges.
France said the allegations against him were false and had called for his immediate release, arguing that he had been caught in the crossfire of diplomatic tensions.
- Russian opposition outraged -
Brussels had sanctioned Usmanov and Fridman following Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, over allegations that their businesses provided significant revenues to the Kremlin.
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.
Ukraine described the move as "shameful".
High-profile members of the exiled Russian opposition were outraged.
Leonid Volkov, a close ally of late Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny, said the decision to remove Usmanov from the sanctions list was "a moral catastrophe."
"Usmanov is far from being an 'ordinary oligarch.' He is one of the system's key people," he said on Telegram.
Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, added: "Thanks, European Commission, for another reminder that in high-level politics, money still speaks louder than principles."
The Kremlin said it backed taking Usmanov and Fridman off the blacklist and that the bloc should lift sanctions on "all Russian businessmen".
Ryan's pardon 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.
French water company executive Anass Derraz, jailed in Azerbaijan last year for accepting a bribe, was not included on the list of the people pardoned on Wednesday.