Bahruz Samedov ended his hunger strike in an Azerbaijani prison.
Researcher Bahruz Samedov ended his hunger strike in prison due to deteriorating health.
As reported by the Caucasian Knot, in mid-November 2025, the administration of Correctional Facility No. 11 filed a complaint to toughen Bahruz's sentence and transfer him to the closed section of the Umbaki Penitentiary Complex. On December 1, the Binagadi District Court upheld the prison administration's request. On February 5, the Baku Court of Appeals upheld the decision to toughen Bahruz Samedov's sentence and transfer him to the closed section of the Umbaki Penitentiary Complex. In protest, Samedov declared an indefinite hunger strike.
29-year-old political scientist and doctoral student at Charles University in the Czech Republic, Bahruz Samedov, was sentenced by a Baku court to 15 years in prison on charges of treason. An appeals court upheld the sentence. Samedov was detained on August 21, 2024, when he arrived in Azerbaijan for vacation. According to investigators, he wrote and translated articles commissioned by Armenian representatives. The charges were based on correspondence between Bahruz Samedov and three women from Armenia. Samedov categorically denied the treason charge. He is known for his criticism of the Azerbaijani authorities, which he has expressed in foreign publications. The defense believes that his "anti-war views" were the reason for his arrest.
Immediately after the appellate court's decision, Samedov was transferred to a closed wing of the Umbaki penitentiary complex, a friend of the convicted man, activist Amrakh Takhmazov, told a Caucasian Knot correspondent. According to him, upon Samedov's arrival in Umbaki, he was placed in a so-called "two-week quarantine" and prohibited from making phone calls or receiving visits.
"However, the support of journalists and activists who publicized the hunger strike yielded results. Yesterday, February 10, Bakhruz was allowed to call his grandmother. "Bahruz reported that his health had worsened due to the hunger strike, and he had ended it," Takhmazov said.
He also noted that Samedov had said he would use all legal means to end his unfounded criminal prosecution.
Samadov's grandmother, Zibeyda Osmanova, confirmed Takhmazov's words. "Bahruz simply wanted peace between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Now that peace has arrived, my grandson is still being held in prison. Moreover, he has now been transferred to a remote prison. It will be very difficult for me, an elderly person, to travel there to see my grandson," Osmanova said.