The sending of ethnographer Abilov to the punishment cell outraged activists.
The researcher of Talysh culture, Iqbal Abilov, was placed in a punishment isolation cell immediately after returning from the pre-trial detention center to the correctional facility, activists stated. They demanded a public justification for the scientist's punishment.
As reported by "Caucasian Knot", on November 2, the court in Baku, at the request of the administration of correctional facility No. 12, tightened the conditions of Iqbal Abilov's detention and ruled to transfer him to a closed-type prison for a year. Abilov rejected the charges of violating discipline.
On June 11, the Supreme Court of Azerbaijan upheld the sentence against Iqbal Abilov. The court's refusal to provide a translator from Talysh, as well as the prosecution itself, Abilov called discrimination against Talysh people. In September, it became known that Iqbal Abilov's health had deteriorated against the backdrop of regular placements in the punishment isolation cell.
Iqbal Abilov was placed in a punishment isolation cell (punishment cell) immediately after returning from Baku pre-trial detention center No. 1 to correctional facility No. 12, reported the public committee for the protection of Iqbal Abilov's rights on November 13.
In its statement, the committee noted that no grounds for placing Abilov in the punishment isolation cell were provided, Meydan TV informs on its website.
Activists pointed out that there are no provisions in Azerbaijani legislation allowing for the placement of a prisoner in a punishment isolation cell solely based on their transfer from a correctional facility to a pre-trial detention center (or vice versa).
"The committee called on the competent authorities to clarify the legal grounds for placing Abilov in the punishment isolation cell. Iqbal Abilov's return to correctional facility No. 12 occurred after the court's decision to transfer him to a closed-type penitentiary institution," the publication states.
In 2024, 35-year-old Azerbaijani citizen Iqbal Abilov, who had lived in Belarus since childhood, came to Azerbaijan for his cousin's wedding. He was detained and accused of collaborating with the Armenian special services. The court found Abilov guilty of treason and inciting national hatred and sentenced him to 18 years in prison. Abilov's relatives believe that the reason for the persecution is his research on Talysh culture. The accusation of treason seems unconvincing and has become another episode of the persecution of activists from national minorities in Azerbaijan, human rights defenders agreed.
Talysh activists and researchers are being persecuted in Azerbaijan
Despite the absence of formal discrimination based on nationality, activists and researchers dealing with issues of ethnic and cultural rights of national minorities, including Talysh people, often fall under pressure from the authorities in Azerbaijan.
In the list of political prisoners compiled by the Union for the Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan, five Talysh activists and researchers were listed in May 2026: Aslan Gurbanov, Mikhafiz Jafarzade, Ruslan Vakhabov, Iqbal Abilov and Zakhiraddin Ibrahimov.
Three of them (blogger Aslan Gurbanov, activist Ruslan Vakhabov, and Iqbal Abilov) have already been convicted, while two others (historian Zakhiraddin Ibrahimov and activist Mirkhafiz Jafarzade) are under arrest on charges related to treason. Human rights organizations link the persecution of all five activists to their social, scientific, and cultural activities, while the authorities deny any political motivation behind these cases.
The most high-profile cases of persecution of Talysh activists in Azerbaijan are listed in the report by the "Caucasian Knot" "How the arrest of Iqbal Abilov is connected to the persecution of Talysh activists".
Talysh (self-designation - "tolish") is a people living in Azerbaijan and Iran. In the 2009 census in Azerbaijan, the number of Talysh was estimated at 112,000, but according to some other estimates, the total number of Talysh people in the republic reaches 500,000.