Courts in Azerbaijan have handed down further politically motivated in-absentia convictions against journalists, bloggers, and other critics of the government living abroad, expanding the authorities’ campaign of transnational repression.
In January, a Baku court convicted several government critics residing in the United States. Sevinc Osmangizi, a journalist, was sentenced in absentia to eight years in prison on charges of “calling for mass unrest” and “overthrow of the state.” The video blogger Vagif Allahverdiyev was also sentenced to eight years: prosecutors cited a 2017 YouTube video as “encouraging the use of force against” the authorities. And blogger Murad Guliyev received a six-year sentence for his social media posts.
These cases reflect a broader crackdown documented by Human Rights Watch. In 2025, Azerbaijan authorities secured in-absentia convictions against several exiled critics, including Ganimat Zahid, sentenced to seven years, and pursued criminal cases against others, including academic Altay Goyushov, and political analyst Arastun Oruclu. Similar proceedings targeted activists Tural Sadigli, Ordukhan (“Temirkhan”) Babirov, Elshad Abdullayev, Rafael Piriyev, Gurban Mammadov, Elshad Mammadov, and Gabil Mammadov, on charges including fraud and forgery, incitement to mass unrest, and “public calls against the state.”
The Azerbaijani authorities’ reach has extended beyond legal proceedings to apparent cross-border abductions. In March 2025, the Talysh historian Zahiraddin Ibrahimov, a Russian citizen barred from Azerbaijan since 2014, went missing in Yekaterinburg, Russia. He later resurfaced in the custody of Azerbaijan’s State Security Service, facing charges of treason, “public calls against the state,” and incitement of hatred. State-aligned media alleged Ibrahimov had close ties with Armenia. He has been in pretrial detention since.
That month, Kamal Isayev, an ethnic minority activist and Russian citizen, was detained in Türkiye while seeking medical care and forcibly transferred to Azerbaijan. Prior to his apprehension, Isayev had publicly advocated for minority rights and criticized government policies affecting ethnic communities. He remains in pretrial detention facing charges of “public calls against the state” and incitement.
These cases reflect an expanding pattern of transnational repression against Azerbaijani critics abroad, raising serious concerns about the safety of diaspora communities.
Azerbaijani authorities should immediately drop all politically motivated charges against exiled journalists, bloggers, and activists, revoke in-absentia convictions, and cease the misuse of extradition and security mechanisms to target critics abroad. Foreign governments should refuse to act on politically motivated requests lacking credible evidence of ordinary criminal conduct and take steps to protect residents and refugees from intimidation, harassment, and irregular transfers.
