In an effort to annihilate independent activism, Azerbaijani authorities have reopened a 2014 criminal investigation that led to the country’s most sweeping crackdown on human rights defenders and journalists in recent history.
The 2014 investigation, reopened last month, targeted international donors and their grantees that operated in Azerbaijan with bogus charges of tax evasion, illegal entrepreneurship, and other accusations stemming from Azerbaijan’s prohibitive rules on grants. Activists were imprisoned on politically motivated charges, donors were forced to stop grantmaking, and many groups were forced to suspend work, move abroad, or even close. Beginning in 2016, the government gradually wound down the investigation.
Then, in mid-2023, authorities renewed their assault on government critics, arresting dozens of independentjournalists and civic activists, mostly on trumped-up money smuggling and other charges. By reopening the 2014 criminal investigation now, authorities make no effort to hide their desire to snuff out independent activism. The arrests and targeting of activists have already ramped up.
Authorities have questioned around 50 individuals, including employees of donor organizations and civic leaders. At least four are in pretrial custody. They are Asaf Ahmadov, head of a community group; Zamin Zaki, a social worker; Bashir Suleymanli, head of a legal aid and civic education group; and Mammad Alpay (known as Mammadzade), head of the Election Monitoring Alliance.
Others are under house arrest or police supervision. These include Galib Bayramov, brother of academic Gubad Ibadoghlu and director of the Economic Research Center, and Hafiz Hasanov, who heads a grouppromoting democratic institutions and legal reform. Others are abroad and wanted by authorities, such as Aytac Aghazade, a feminist activist.
They all face spurious charges such as money laundering, forgery, and abuse of office.
The activists are vulnerable to these charges because, since 2013, Azerbaijani laws and practices have made it impossible for independent organizations to comply fully or access funding, hire staff, or conduct public advocacy.
In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights found that prosecutions deriving from the 2014 investigations “revealed a troubling pattern of arbitrary arrest and detention of government critics … though retaliatory prosecutions and misuse of criminal law.”
International actors should not look away as the Azerbaijani government strangles civil society. They should urge the authorities to release all detained for their legitimate work, implement European Court judgements, and reform laws and practices to ensure a safe and enabling environment for independent organizations.
