Campaign to end repression in Azerbaijan

Campaign to end repression in Azerbaijan Free political prisoners 🕊️
Restore civic space and media freedoms 🫶
Uphold human rights and the rule of law ⚖️

https://endrepression-az.org

Seven years after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Mammadli v Azerbaijan, the applicant, Anar Mammadli, has b...
12/05/2026

Seven years after the European Court of Human Rights ruled in Mammadli v Azerbaijan, the applicant, Anar Mammadli, has been re-arrested and is facing a new trial on the same charges.

The same template of financial offence indictments, money laundering, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, is being deployed against him and a whole new generation of journalists, human rights defenders, election monitors, and civil society leaders in Azerbaijan.
This is what contempt for justice looks like: a State that disregards the rulings of the Court, recycles the very charges those rulings condemned, and uses unexpunged convictions to aggravate new indictments against the same defenders.

➡️ Today we filed a Rule 9.2 submission with the Department for the Ex*****on of Judgments of the Council of Europe, asking the Committee of Ministers to adopt an interim resolution establishing an ad hoc mechanism for the Mammadli group of cases. Link in comments ⤵️

“If I were a criminal, I would not have used a state bank account directly monitored by the authorities.”Human rights de...
12/05/2026

“If I were a criminal, I would not have used a state bank account directly monitored by the authorities.”

Human rights defender Asef Ahmadov, head of the G***a Regional Public Center, challenged the charges against him in the “NGO case” with a devastating courtroom statement that exposes the flaws in the prosecution's allegations.
In a document submitted to the G***a Court for Serious Crimes, Asef Ahmadov details how investigators ignored his financial hardships — the mortgaged home, the outstanding loans, the wedding rings he pawned to pay for his child's education — whilst constructing a narrative that he was part of a “criminal group” laundering hundreds of thousands of manats.
His case reveals a pattern of selective prosecution: out of 25 people working under identical service contracts, only Asef Ahmadov has faced arrest. The charges criminalise not money laundering but ordinary civic work: community development, social projects, cooperation with international donors, and legal assistance to citizens.

“I ask you not for mercy, but for justice.” ⚖️

Asef Ahmadov's case is the human cost of Azerbaijan's assault on independent civil society.

The European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights meets on Thursday to consider how its own resolution — adopted in...
05/05/2026

The European Parliament's Subcommittee on Human Rights meets on Thursday to consider how its own resolution — adopted in December 2025 — has been implemented 🇪🇺

The short answer is: the Commission mostly ignored it ⚠️

Bahruz Samadov remains in prison, sentenced to 15 years for contact with Armenian scholars. Igbal Abilov remains in prison, sentenced to 18 years for his academic work on Talysh culture. Both have seen their health deteriorate.
Ali Karimli, whose arrest the resolution expressly condemned, remains detained.

The EU, meanwhile, held a summit with President Aliyev in Baku on 11 March 2026 🇦🇿
The joint statement that followed committed to a swift new partnership agreement, EUR 3 billion in transport investment, continued energy cooperation, and a new working group on economic cooperation.
It contained no reference to political prisoners, civil society, media freedom, academic freedom, rule of law, or the resolution the Parliament had adopted ten weeks earlier ⚖️

➡️ Ahead of Thursday's hearing, we submitted a briefing note to the members of the Subcommittee.
It documents the deterioration on the ground, tracks the implementation of the resolution paragraph by paragraph, analyses what the joint statement reveals about EU priorities, and puts five concrete questions to the Parliament — including on sanctions, on conditionality, and on what the EU Special Representative for Human Rights has actually done since December.

🔗 https://www.endrepression-az.org/partnership-without-conditions-our-briefing-note-for-the-european-parliament/

CRISIS UPDATE: Ramil Babayev, a defendant in the Toplum TV case, told the Baku Grave Crimes Court today that he has been...
04/05/2026

CRISIS UPDATE: Ramil Babayev, a defendant in the Toplum TV case, told the Baku Grave Crimes Court today that he has been on a dry hunger strike for five days, after his complaints to the Baku Detention Centre administration went unaddressed 🚨

During those five days, he reported vomiting blood twice. His requests for a medical examination and a cell transfer were refused. A doctor was called only the evening before the hearing, once staff learned he was due in court.
Babayev said he had refused to attend. He was brought to court regardless.

Akif Gurbanov, Speaker of the Third Republic Platform, is held at the Baku Pretrial Detention Centre on politically moti...
30/04/2026

Akif Gurbanov, Speaker of the Third Republic Platform, is held at the Baku Pretrial Detention Centre on politically motivated charges. Authorities are now working to silence him inside prison.

On 25 April 2026, detention centre staff conducted a search of his cell and confiscated his drafts and written materials without legal justification. On 28 April, authorities sought to obtain statements against Gurbanov from other detainees held in the same cell and attempted to pressure him into providing a statement himself. He was instructed to stop writing materials critical of the authorities and to limit his telephone communications to personal conversations with family and friends only.

When he refused to comply, his access to telephone calls was cut entirely.

Gurbanov has continued to issue statements from detention and to speak in court. In response to these latest measures, he has brought his concerns to public attention and indicated his intention to pursue legal remedies against the restrictions imposed on his rights ✊

On the second anniversary of his abduction, calling for the release of Anar Mammadli is also calling for every human rig...
29/04/2026

On the second anniversary of his abduction, calling for the release of Anar Mammadli is also calling for every human rights defender, lawyer, journalist, civic activist and scholar Azerbaijan has put in prison for the same reasons.

Holding Azerbaijan accountable for what is happening to Anar Mammadli means holding it accountable for everyone. We are asking the European Union, the Council of Europe, the United Nations, and Azerbaijan’s other partners to make Anar Mammadli’s release, and the release of every other political prisoner, a condition for working with Azerbaijan.

➡️ Add your voice: https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/en/president_ilham_aliyev_prosecutor_general_kamran_a_two_years_too_many_free_anar_mammadli_and_end_repression_in_azerbaijan

Two years ago today, on 29 April 2024, Azerbaijani security forces grabbed Anar Mammadli off the streets of Baku. He was...
29/04/2026

Two years ago today, on 29 April 2024, Azerbaijani security forces grabbed Anar Mammadli off the streets of Baku. He was on his way to pick up his child from nursery.

Two years later, he is still in prison on fabricated charges. His trial has been a mockery of justice. The charges keep changing, from smuggling to illegal business, money laundering, tax evasion, and document forgery. The goal stays the same.
Anar Mammadli is a prominent Azerbaijani human rights defender. He leads the country’s only independent election watchdog and co-founded the Climate of Justice Initiative. The same methods used against him are being used against hundreds of other human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, civic activists and scholars in Azerbaijan. His case shows the wider pattern of repression: a decade of repression in one life ⚠️

Two years is two years too many.

1. Sign the petition: https://secure.avaaz.org/community_petitions/en/president_ilham_aliyev_prosecutor_general_kamran_a_two_years_too_many_free_anar_mammadli_and_end_repression_in_azerbaijan/
2. Write directly to President Aliyev from our website or scan the attached dedicated QR code: https://free-anar.site/
3. Send a message of solidarity to Anar; we will print and deliver it. From our website or scan the attached dedicated QR code: https://free-anar.site/

Anar Məmmədliyə birbaşa məktub yazın. Biz onu çap edib sizin adınızdan həbsxanaya çatdıracağıq.
28/04/2026

Anar Məmmədliyə birbaşa məktub yazın. Biz onu çap edib sizin adınızdan həbsxanaya çatdıracağıq.

İki il əvvəl, 29 aprel 2024-cü il tarixində, Azərbaycan təhlükəsizlik orqanları Anar Məmmədlini Bakının küçələrində qaçı...
28/04/2026

İki il əvvəl, 29 aprel 2024-cü il tarixində, Azərbaycan təhlükəsizlik orqanları Anar Məmmədlini Bakının küçələrində qaçırdılar. Bu gün də o, uydurma ittihamlar əsasında həbsdədir.
Bu gün Prezident Əliyevə birbaşa müraciət edin. Anar Məmmədlinin dərhal və qeyd-şərtsiz azad edilməsini tələb edin. Bir kliklə, bir dəqiqədə. QR kodu skan edin və ya saytımıza daxil olun.

Ali Karimli has now been in detention for 75 days.He is a leader of the opposition and chair of the Azerbaijan Popular F...
12/02/2026

Ali Karimli has now been in detention for 75 days.

He is a leader of the opposition and chair of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party. A court has recently prolonged his pre-trial detention.

➡️ Show solidarity with Ali Karimli and other political prisoners in Azerbaijan. Please use and share our portrait image from this page: https://free-anar.site/political-prisoners/ali-karimli/ ✊🇦🇿

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