In Azerbaijan authorities remain on track to keep critics silenced and locked up

Image by Arzu Geybullayeva.

Azerbaijan's civil society has been rocked by a series of targeted arrests, which peaked in 2023 and continued throughout 2024. The authorities have not budged despite the calls by international organizations and foreign governments to release those who have been arrested and drop bogus charges leveled against them. The advocacy efforts led by various stakeholders ahead of Azerbaijan hosting the annual global climate conference COP29 last year were left unanswered, leaving scores of journalists, political and civic activists, and human rights defenders in pre-trial detention. Already, several of them have been sent to prison on lengthy jail sentences handed down in December 2024 and in the first month of the new year.

Prison sentences

Since December 2024, courts in Baku issued at least five prison sentences. Among those who have been sentenced are rights defender Ilhamiz Guliyev (three years), journalist Teymur Karimov (eight years), activists Rail Abbasov (six years and six months) and Bakhtiyar Hajiyev (ten years), and labor rights activist Afiaddin Mammadov (eight years). A court in Baku also sentenced a German citizen of Azerbaijani origin, Hamza Mammadli, to six years behind bars on January 6, 2025. Mammadli was found guilty on two accounts: making calls for terrorism and calls against the state. Mammadli received asylum in Germany in 2015 and German citizenship in 2022. He traveled to Azerbaijan in 2023 for his own wedding and was arrested at the airport

In addition, pretrial detentions of Toplum TV journalists and affiliates were extended by another three months in December 2024. During their hearings in January, none were released under house arrest despite the absence of evidence justifying their continued detention. The local courts also refused to transfer Meydan TV journalists under house arrest and have been censoring journalists from Abzas Media in the courtroom during their trial, as per statements from lawyers representing the journalists.

Travel bans imposed in the absence of knowledge of activists, journalists, and family members of those currently in pre-trial detention continued. The most recent travel ban was placed on journalist Ulviyya Ali who was questioned by the police on January 16 as part of the criminal investigation launched against Meydan TV. Another journalist, Khanim Mustafayeva, was en route to Turkey, where she is based, when she was informed, she was placed on a travel ban on January 11. Mustafayeva told Meydan TV that she was visiting her family for the holidays and was headed back when she was stopped by the border police at the airport and informed of the travel ban.

Also placed on a travel ban was the mother of arrested human rights defender Rufat Safarov, Tahira Tahirqizi, on January 4. She was taking her husband for his medical check-up in Turkey when both were stopped at the airport, and she was informed she was on a travel ban. Tahirqizi was then called in for questioning on January 6 in the ongoing investigation launched against her son Rufat Safarov. Safarov was arrested in December 2024 and placed in four months’ pretrial detention on spurious fraud and hooliganism charges.

Smear campaign and mass discrediting

Azerbaijani government-aligned media is well versed in targeted reputational damage campaigns against individuals and organizations. Before the arrests of journalists from Abzas Media and Toplum TV, they were targeted by pro-government online news sites, claiming that Toplum TV, Abzas, and others were financed by Western governments, specifically the United States, to spread anti-Azerbaijan narratives.

As such, it was not surprising to see a wave of “investigations” published since the arrests of Meydan TV journalists echoing the official narrative alleging that the Meydan TV journalists were involved in “money laundering” and “dark activities.”

A fact-checking platform, Fakt Yoxla, concluded in its analysis of these targeted smear campaigns that the content of the disseminated materials undermined the presumption of innocence of the arrested journalists and violated their rights to privacy and family life. “The content of these materials contained accusations against the imprisoned journalists such as ‘smuggling,’ ‘participation in money laundering,’ and shared their personal correspondence obtained from journalists’ devices that were outside the criminal investigation, including voice recordings on WhatsApp, communication on Slack, as well as information about their relatives and personal lives,” wrote Toplum TV.

Letters from prison

Despite deliberate silencing of journalists who have been investigating the government and its officials and have, as a result, exposed corruption and money laundering schemes, arrested journalists continue reporting even from behind bars.

In August 2024, the director of Abzas Media, Ulvi Hasanli, wrote about instances of torture inside the prison facility where he is currently being held.

In January 2025, Abzas Media journalist Elnara Gasimova wrote about rights violations and unfair conditions inmates face in prison where the journalist is being held herself. From physical and psychological violence to inhumane treatment and poor conditions of the detention center, Gasimova wrote about her experience and how she has been treated since her arrest in November 2023. Employees of the detention center are engaged in behavior that violates the Law On Ensuring the Rights and Freedoms of Persons Detained in Places of Detention, and yet, there is no oversight, wrote Gasimova.

While prisons are left without oversight, one place authorities diligently deploy monitoring is social media. In addition to the German citizen who was arrested and later sentenced over a comment he left on a social media platform, authorities issued arrest warrants against some 10 TikTok users in Azerbaijan in December 2024. Some were arrested on the grounds of drug possession, others for gambling. The Ministry of Internal Affairs accused the TikTokers of promoting immorality.

In the absence of independent media, social media platforms and social networks have become the new target in the hands of the authorities, veteran journalist Mehman Aliyev, who heads the Turan News Agency, told in an interview with Meydan TV. Speaking on the wave of arrests targeting TikTokers, Aliyev connected the arrests to the law on media introduced in 2022. “When the Law ‘On Media’ was adopted, I repeatedly said and wrote that this law was not a law on mass media but was aimed at social networks. The main power lies with social networks. Therefore, the policy of pressure against social networks will continue,” Aliyev told Meydan TV.

In an interview with Meydan TV, lawyer Samad Rahimli said the arrests violated domestic laws given the lack of clear legal language in existing regulations on social media. “The legal quality of that legislation is in a poor state. The practical application of that legislation also creates conditions for law enforcement agencies to act arbitrarily. In such a case, the detention of TikTokers on suspicion of committing one or more administrative offenses against public order and public morality and the possible measures taken against them contradict both Azerbaijani legislation and the standards of freedom of expression stipulated by international human rights law, to which Azerbaijan is a party,” Rahimli told the media outlet.

This pattern of arrests and prosecutions reflects a broader strategy by Azerbaijani authorities to suppress dissent, curtail freedom of expression, and create an environment of fear because authorities have nothing else to give to the citizens of Azerbaijan, said opposition leader Ali Karimli in an interview with Meydan TV. 

In its annual report, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) listed Azerbaijan among the top five countries in Europe where journalists are targeted the most. According to documentation by Azerbaijani rights watchdogs, there are over 300 political prisoners in the country.

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