Activists demanded the release of Anar Mammadli
Azerbaijani human rights activist Anar Mammadli has been in custody for nearly two years on fabricated charges, activists said. They called for all charges against him to be dropped and his release.
As reported by the Caucasian Knot, on September 22, 2025, at a court hearing in Baku, Anar Mammadli, head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDSC), delivered a defense speech. He pointed out to the court the political nature of his criminal prosecution and compared it to Soviet-era repression.
Anar Mammadli was detained in Baku on April 29, 2024, and arrested on smuggling charges as part of the case against employees of Abzas Media. His case was later separated into separate proceedings. In May 2025, Mammadli was charged with new offenses: illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion as part of an organized group, and document forgery. The case has been referred to court, and the defense maintains Mammadli's innocence. Freelance journalist Anar Abdulla (Abdullayev) has also been charged in the Mammadli case.
Activists in the international campaign to end repression in Azerbaijan have called for the human rights defender's release on the eve of the second anniversary of Anar Mammadli's arrest.
"April 29, 2026, marks exactly two years since the arbitrary detention of Anar Mammadli, a prominent human rights defender and the head of Azerbaijan's only independent election observation organization, by Azerbaijani authorities. On this occasion, the Campaign to End Repression in Azerbaijan issues a global call for his immediate and unconditional release,” the campaign said in a statement received by the Caucasian Knot correspondent.
The human rights campaign "End Repression in Azerbaijan" was organized by Azerbaijani and foreign activists in mid-2024 to draw international attention to politically motivated persecution in the run-up to the COP-29 climate conference in Baku.
The two-year criminal prosecution of Mammadli has become a "mockery of justice," the authors of the statement believe.
He is being held on trumped-up charges, which have changed over time.
"He is being held on "The charges against them have been fabricated and have evolved over time, from smuggling to illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion, and document forgery," the document emphasizes.
On March 2, at a court hearing in Baku, the head of the Election Observation organization testified in the case of Mammadli and Abdullah. He did not confirm the prosecution's version of events regarding smuggling.
The case of Anar Mammadli is a telling example of repression in Azerbaijan, activists stated. "All the methods used against him – fabricated charges, prolonged pretrial detention, denial of fair trial standards, smear campaigns, and solitary confinement – have been used against hundreds of others," the statement noted.
The number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan reached its highest level in 23 years of the country's membership in the Council of Europe in 2024, according to the Caucasian Knot report "Key Points on the Record Number of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan." At the same time, the Azerbaijani authorities deny the existence of political prisoners in the country.
Activists called on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to "order the immediate and unconditional release of Anar Mammadli, drop all charges, and put an end to the persecution of human rights defenders, lawyers, journalists, civil society activists, and academics."
They also called on "Azerbaijan's international partners, especially the European Union and the Council of Europe, to make Mammadli's release, along with the release of all other political prisoners, a precondition for cooperation."
Seven employees of the online publication Abzas Media in June 2025 They were sentenced to prison terms ranging from 7.5 to 9 years. They denied the charges in court, emphasizing that they were being persecuted for their professional activities and for investigating corruption cases. On September 9, the appellate court upheld the verdict.
Mammadli's defense called the prosecution's case unproven
Mammadli's lawyer Elchin Sadigov told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent today that the judicial investigation into the activist's case is ongoing.
According to the defense, the prosecution has not presented any credible evidence of Mammadli's guilt.
Furthermore, the lawyer noted, Mammadli is deprived of access to quality medical care and, in particular, to examination in a specialized civilian clinic, despite serious health problems.
As a reminder, in December 2025, the UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Association and Assembly, Gina Romero, contacted the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan in connection with criminal prosecution of Anar Mammadli. She demanded Mammadli's immediate release from custody, immediate medical care, the dropping of all criminal charges related to his civil society activities, and compensation.
In 2013, Anar Mammadli was arrested and convicted on charges whose political motivation was confirmed by a 2018 ECHR ruling. In October 2025, Mammadli appealed to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. He pointed out that the failure to implement the ECHR ruling on the need to acquit him in a previous criminal case allowed security forces to bring more serious charges against him.