Count of political prisoners in Azerbaijan reaches 375

Within the last four months, the list of Azeri political prisoners has been replenished with more than 20 names of journalists, oppositionists, activists and believers.

On June 10, the Union for Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan released a new list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, including 375 names. The list was compiled by the co-coordinators of the Union – Leyla Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, and Elshan Gasanov, Head of the Centre for Monitoring Political Prisoners.

Three persons were excluded from the previous list, released on February 12, 2025, namely, the journalist Shakhnaz Beilyargyzy, who was transferred to house arrest, and two more people whose sentences have ended.

"The number of political prisoners continues growing. Unfortunately, the May pardoning order didn’t affect political prisoners at all. Since February 12, we have 21 new political prisoners," a source from the above Union has informed.

He has pointed to the ongoing trend of criminal prosecution of journalists. During the review period, the journalists, Nurlan Gakhramanly, Fatima Movlamly and Ulviya Ali, were arrested; all of them were charged within the “Meydan” TV case.

Besides, Akhmed Mamedli, an activist, who has also recently been involved in journalistic activities, has ended up behind bars.

The human rights defender has mentioned another negative trend – the "reanimation" by the Prosecutor’s Office of the criminal case against local and foreign NGOs, under which during the review period the human rights defenders and activists, Bashir Suleimanly, Mamed Mamedzade, Asef Akhmedov and Zamin Zyaki were arrested.

Besides, the source has emphasized that arrests of political activists continued, and the list was expanded by four members of the Popular Front Party of Azerbaijan (PFPA), namely: Kenan Zeinalov, Novruz Tagiev, Gyunduz Mirzoev and Zaur Askerov.

Human rights defenders have also recognized as a political prisoner Zakhiriddin Ibragimov, a Talysh activist, who was arrested on charges of treason and extradited to Azeri authorities by Russia.

Also, the list includes believers, whose number has traditionally predominated in the overall list of political prisoners in recent years, the source from the Union has noted. In the list, 375 political prisoners are split into 12 groups, including "journalists and bloggers" – 29 persons; "human rights defenders" – 6 persons; "members of oppositional parties and civil society activists" – 39 persons; "national minority activists" – 5 persons; "anti-war activists" – 2 persons; "those arrested in connection with events in Soyudlu", "political emigrants deported from Germany" and "believers" – 241 persons; "those convicted under the Terter case" – 8 persons; "those convicted under the Ganja case" – 13 persons; "life-sentenced prisoners" – 12 persons; and "those arrested under the Imishli case" – 13 persons.

This was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on June 11, 2025 at 10:50 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.