Azerbaijan Sentences French Businessman to 10 Years for Spying on Military Ties With Türkiye

By Bosphorus News Geopolitics Desk

A court in Baku sentenced French national Martin Ryan to 10 years in prison on March 16, 2026, after finding him guilty of espionage against Azerbaijan under Article 276 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code. Prosecutors had sought 11 years.

Ryan was tried alongside Azerbaijani citizen Azad Mamedli, who was convicted of high treason and sentenced to 12 years. Ryan pleaded partially guilty. In his final statement he said: "I consider myself guilty only in that I should not have established contacts with some embassy officials, or that I should have shared information about them with the appropriate authorities. I did not spy. I am not a spy, and during the court case I tried to prove this."

After serving his sentence, Ryan will be expelled from Azerbaijan, according to APA news agency. Ryan also holds British citizenship.

What Prosecutors Alleged

Prosecutors said Ryan cooperated with employees of France's intelligence services allegedly operating from the French embassy in Baku and gathered classified information about Azerbaijan's military cooperation with Türkiye and Pakistan, as well as its relations with Iran. He was also accused of collecting intelligence on companies linked to Russia and China.

The indictment alleged that Ryan recruited Mamedli and arranged for him to meet French intelligence agents, who tasked him with recruiting Azerbaijanis and Russian nationals at a Moscow university where Mamedli studied. The case was overseen by Judge Elmin Rustamov and charges referenced the DGSE, France's external intelligence service.

Before his arrest, Ryan had been working in Azerbaijan for a food importing and consulting company. He had also drawn attention by publishing an open letter to French President Emmanuel Macron urging Paris to stop what he described as its denigration of Azerbaijan and defending Baku's position in its conflict with Armenia.

France Rejects the Verdict

Paris has consistently rejected the accusations and described Ryan's detention as arbitrary. The French foreign ministry has called for his immediate release, insisting he has no links to French intelligence and that he was caught in the crossfire of diplomatic tensions. Ryan's father told AFP in January that "no incriminating evidence has been presented" against his son. The French foreign ministry said state services are "fully mobilised to secure his release."

France has not recognised the verdict.

A Diplomatically Awkward Moment

The timing is notable. Ryan was arrested in December 2023, when France-Azerbaijan relations had reached a low point over Paris's support for Armenia during and after the 2020 Nagorno-Karabakh war. The sentence, however, was handed down as bilateral ties have visibly improved.

In October 2024, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said "past misunderstandings between the two countries have been resolved" after meeting Macron in Copenhagen. Earlier this month, Macron and Aliyev spoke by phone and discussed revitalising bilateral relations. A French diplomatic source told AFP last month: "We want to carry forward a process of normalisation with Azerbaijan. Among the disagreements between our two countries is the fate of Martin Ryan."

A 10-year sentence delivered in that window raises questions about whether Ryan will become a bargaining piece in the normalisation process rather than a casualty of tensions that no longer officially exist. In May 2025, Azerbaijan pardoned another French citizen, Theo Hugo Clerc, who had served three years for drawing graffiti in the Baku metro, suggesting the release mechanism exists when political will aligns.

The Türkiye Thread

The allegation that Ryan gathered intelligence on Azerbaijan's military cooperation with Türkiye places this case within a broader regional pattern that Bosphorus News has been tracking since early 2026.

In late January, Turkish security services arrested six suspects, including one Iranian national, on suspicion of spying for Iran's IRGC, with the group accused of collecting intelligence on military installations including Incirlik Air Base. A separate operation in early February, codenamed MONITUM, led to the detention of two Turkish nationals suspected of working for Mossad, alleged to have transmitted intelligence through encrypted channels. Both cases were reported by Bosphorus News as part of a wider sequence of counter-espionage operations across the region.

That sequence has extended beyond Türkiye. Greek police detained a 26-year-old Azerbaijani national in Crete on suspicion of spying on the Souda Bay air and naval base, days after Cyprus arrested and later deported an Azerbaijani-Estonian couple suspected of conducting IRGC surveillance on the island. As Bosphorus News reported, the Cyprus case concluded without evidence of illegal activity yet still resulted in deportation on national security grounds. Greek authorities investigated whether the Crete and Cyprus arrests were connected given the similar suspect profile.

The Ryan verdict adds another data point: allegations of intelligence collection focused on Azerbaijan's military partnerships, in a case that originated during a period of regional tension and is now being resolved as that tension formally recedes.

For related Bosphorus News reporting: Türkiye Detains Suspects in Multiple Espionage Cases as Similar Incidents Surface Across Europe

Cyprus Detains and Deports Couple Over Suspected Iranian Surveillance