Tag: arrest

Blogger Arrested Under Newly Amended Information Law [updated Feb 23]

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On February 2, TikTok blogger Salman Mammadov — known online as “Velizar” — was administratively detained on charges of disseminating prohibited content. Mammadov had attracted widespread public attention through live fundraising streams. 

The arrest followed amendments to the Law on Information, Informatization and Protection of Information, signed by President Ilham Aliyev. The amendments ban the mass dissemination of content deemed to insult public morality or show explicit disrespect for society in a manner contrary to national moral values.

Six People Fined or Jailed for Social Media Posts

The same legal framework has produced its first documented wave of enforcement actions. According to a formal statement by the Prosecutor General’s Office, six people have already been penalised for social media posts under the new provisions: four received administrative detention, and two were fined.

The Prosecutor General’s Office stated that those individuals had posted content “insulting public morality, displaying open disrespect and content contrary to ethics” on social networks. Authorities issued a public warning that “the digital space is not a lawless or uncontrolled zone,” and threatened continued enforcement against anyone publishing content that targets national moral values.

The relevant article carries penalties of between 500 and 1,000 manat or up to 30 days’ administrative detention for a first offence. Repeat offenders face fines of 1,000–2,000 manat or detention of one to two months.

Former Investigator Arrested for Facebook Post Contradicting President

On February 23, Mushfig Abbasov — a former investigator at the Baku City Chief Prosecutor’s Office — was sentenced to 15 days of administrative detention by the Yasamal District Court following a request from the prosecution.

He was found in violation of Article 388-1.1.1 of the Administrative Offences Code, which prohibits posting content on information networks or telecommunications networks that is prohibited by law.

The post in question was a brief Facebook status update that directly contradicted a remark by President Ilham Aliyev at the Munich Security Conference. After Aliyev declared that “there are no independent media anywhere in the world,” Abbasov wrote: “There are no independent media in the world, but we have some.” That sentence was sufficient grounds for his detention. Abbasov had previously been imprisoned for bribery.

meclis.info website founders on trial

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In April 2024, police arrested Imran Aliyev, one of the founders of the meclis.info website, at the Baku Haydar Aliyev International Airport. Aliyev was accused of smuggling charges and sent into pretrial detention. Since then, additional charges have been leveled against him, including abuse of power, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, and document forgery – all of which he denies. On June 10, 2025, Aliyev and the website’s second founder, Elgiz Gahraman, heard the full indictment in their case at a hearing in Baku. 

According to the indictment, meclis.info’s website and social media accounts were not properly registered. As a result, Aliyev, Gahraman, and a third colleague, Tamella Musayeva, are accused of receiving undeclared foreign funding through meclis.info and engaging in smuggling. The indictment also claims all three forged documents while committing smuggling, purportedly in cahoots with Abzas Media journalists. If convicted, Aliyev, Gahraman, and Musayeva face a minimum of seven and up to twelve years in prison.

Elgiz Gahraman and Tamella Musayeva were placed under police supervision in February 2025, facing the exact charges as Aliyev. Gahraman has been under a travel ban since April 2024 due to an investigation related to the Abzas Media case.

Majlis.info was launched in 2023 and published analytical pieces about the activities of the Azerbaijani parliament and the often-controversial statements made by its members.

journalist and editor-in-chief arrested

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On February 5, 2025, Azerbaijani authorities detained independent journalist Shamshad Aghayev, editor-in-chief of the online media outlet arqument.az. His residence was searched, and personal belongings, including electronic devices, were confiscated. Aghayev has been charged with smuggling under Article 206.3.2 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code, which pertains to smuggling committed by a group of persons in collusion. He has been placed in pretrial detention for two months and one day. 

Aghayev’s lawyer, Shahla Humbatova, contends that there is no basis for his arrest, noting that he was already under a travel ban as a witness in a Toplum TV case. Aghayev denies the charges, asserting that his detention is linked to his journalistic activities. 

On February 6, journalist Shahnaz Huseynova (Beylergizi) was arrested and placed in pretrial detention for three months and 15 days. The journalist affiliated with Toplum TV is facing multiple charges, including engaging workers in any form of employment without a legally binding employment contract, large-scale illegal entrepreneurship, legalization of property through criminal means by an organized group (money laundering); the same actions committed on a large scale; smuggling committed by an organized group; tax evasion committed by an organized group. 

These arrests attest to Baku authorities’ continued relentless crackdown against remaining independent media and journalists in the country. Since November 2023, journalists from several online news platforms, including Abzas Media, Toplum TV, Kanal 13, Kanal 11, and Meydan TV have been targeted with arrests. 

activist handed down jail sentence over online posts

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On January 28, 2025, the Baku Court for Serious Crimes sentenced Elshan Karimov to six years in prison.

The charges were based on his social media posts defending political prisoners in Azerbaijan, which authorities interpreted as incitement to overthrow the government. Karimov and his supporters assert that his arrest and sentencing are politically motivated, aiming to suppress dissent. 

The activist was detained in April 2024 in the village of Rustamli, Yevlakh region, while attending his father’s funeral. He was charged under Article 281.1 of the Azerbaijani Criminal Code, which pertains to public calls for the violent seizure of power. 

website editor sentenced to 8 years

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The director of the website “dunyaninsesi.az”, Arshad Ibrahimov, who has been in prison since December 2023 on extortion by threat charges, was sentenced to 8 years on January 24, 2025. 

Ibrahimov refutes allegations leveled against him. During his defense, Ibrahimov said the charges were bogus and were linked to the website’s reports of police misconduct in various districts across the country he has reported. 

In his final statement, Ibrahimov claimed he had been under pressure from the Organized Crime Department for a long time due to his website’s reports on police misconduct. In 2014, he was arrested by the Organized Crime Department and convicted under the same criminal article. At the time, he was sentenced to 11 years. The sentence was later reduced to 10 years on appeal and then to 5 years by the Supreme Court. He was released early through a presidential pardon.

Ibrahimov also said that a year before his most recent arrest, he was detained, held for a day, and forced to delete critical articles about the police. Ibrahimov said that the head of the department, Abulfat Rzayev, warned him that if he continued publishing adverse reports about the police, he would be arrested—which eventually happened.

During the hearing, Ibrahimov’s lawyer, Zabil Gahramanov, argued that people who the website editor allegedly blackmailed said they had no complaints against Ibrahimov. During the testimony, they said the Organized Crime Department pressured them to file a complaint. 

His lawyer announced that they would appeal the verdict.

another wave of arrests targets online news platform

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On March 6, police stormed the office of Toplum TV, an online news platform in Baku. While the office was searched, the police questioned some fifteen staff members. Among those detained were interns and the tech team. While nine were released after questioning, at least six other journalists were sent to pre-trial custody on bogus smuggling charges.

Shortly after detention, social media accounts belonging to Toplum TV were compromised. 

As a result, all 3600 videos on Toplum TV’s YouTube channel were deleted.  

Previously Toplum TV’s Facebook page was hacked via SMS interception. 

authorities arrest another blogger and block access to a public forum

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Farid Suleymanov was arrested on January 8, 2024. He was sentenced to 30-day administrative detention. And although Suleymanov was scheduled for release on February 7 – the day of snap presidential elections – he was instead taken back to BandOtdel – the department for combating organized crime at the Ministry of the Interior. 

Suleymanov is an activist, lawyer, and blogger from Azerbaijan. Active on a number of social platforms, Suleymanov ran a TikTok channel called “I saw it, I showed you.” Through his videos, Suleymanov raised awareness of the illegal activities of the traffic police, exposing their unlawfulness. For this, he has been questioned several times but let go. He also informs his audience via his social media channels of other challenges and issues in the country. 

According to this video on Suleymanov’s YouTube channel, he was approached by a group of unknown men, who, without introducing themselves, shoved him into a white Mercedes and took him to BandOtdel.

Separately, Az-net Watch received an anonymous email from a reader informing the platform of the blocking of a Russian-language forum  www.baku365.com. According to the information shared in the email, all three main mobile operators and local ISPs have blocked access to the website. On what grounds remains unclear. Earlier, Suleymanov’s daughter shared a post about her father’s unlawful arrest and detention. 

blogger arrested [update March 3, 2025]

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[Update] On March 3, 2025, Sayadoglu was sentenced to seven years. 

Arzu Sayadoglu, known as a blogger who often critiques the state officials and the government, was reportedly arrested on January 28, 2024. According to family and friends, the blogger first went missing after an interview with an opposition YouTube channel, AzadSoz. It was announced two days later that the blogger was arrested and sent into pre-trial detention.

Meydan TV reported that the blogger was sentenced to four months in pre-trial detention and charged with extortion.

editor of an online television channel disappears, then handed arrest [several other journalists detained][Updated May 15, 2025]

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[Update] Karimov was sentenced to eight years on December 28, 2024. He was also banned from doing journalism for two years. On May 15, 2025, Karimov’s sentence was reduced by one year in an appeal court. 

Kanal 11 editor Teymur Karimov reportedly went missing on December 11. However, the same day, the Ministry of Internal Affairs confirmed Karimov’s whereabouts in a statement, stating that Karimov had been detained and charged with extortion. The founder and director of Kanal11, Karimov, was sent to four months of pre-trial detention. 

If convicted, Karimov will face five years behind bars or fifteen years with aggravated circumstances. 

Karimov was among scores of journalists rounded up in November and December, ahead of the snap presidential election scheduled for February 7, 2024.

According to Kanal11, the real cause of Karimov’s arrest was his previous reporting on corruption in one of Azerbaijan’s regions.

Also on December 11, police arrested two more journalists, Ibrahim Humbatov of Azerinfo.az and Arshad Ibrahimov of Dunyaninsesi.az, on alleged extortion charges. Both journalists were sent into pre-trial detention pending trial.  

Separately on December 13, authorities arrested investigative journalist Hafiz Babali and sent him into three-month pre-trial detention on smuggling charges. 

The journalist was arrested as part of an ongoing investigation against Abzas Media.  

activist taken from his home after a social media post

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Activist Latif Mammadov was reportedly taken from his home, after posting on social media a critical post, about President Ilham Aliyev’s comments on recent protests in the village of Soyudlu. 

Mammadov is the third civic activist to be detained/questioned by law enforcement over online commentary about the village protests. 

On June 22, political activist and former political prisoner Giyas Ibrahimov was arrested and sentenced to 30 days in administrative detention on bogus charges of resisting police. On June 24, new charges were leveled against the activist, accusing Ibrahimov of spreading prohibited information on the Internet (Article 388.1 of the Code of Administrative Offenses). The former was handed down to the activist after Ibrahimov voiced criticism against the state over its mishandling of popular unrest in one of the villages in western Azerbaijan. The latter is related to the former accusation, punishing Ibrahimov over his social media post.  

On June 21, police arrested another activist and board member of the opposition NIDA Youth Movement, Elmir Abbasov. He was sentenced to 20 days in administrative detention for disobeying police. The movement said, the charges leveled against Abbasov were bogus, and the real reason behind the activist’s arrest was his Facebook post about the protests and the state’s violent response to the residents of the village. Abbasov was released on July 11. 

In recent years, scores of activists, rights defenders, and journalists have been called into questioning, detained or sentenced, or held accountable over activity on social media platforms.