meclis.info website founders on trial

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.

activist receives conditional sentence

Civic activist Famil Khalilov has been handed a conditional sentence of 3 years with a 2-year probation period. Khalilov was arrested on May 2, 2024, on spurious drug charges. He was transferred under house arrest in December 2024. The activist was accused of drug charges – possession of a large amount of drugs with the intent to sell. Police claimed they confiscated 13 grams of methamphetamine in his pocket during his arrest. The activist refuted the allegations at the time, saying drugs were planted on him during his arrest. On February 6, 2025, when the verdict was being read, the activist was found guilty under drug possession charges, except “without the intent to sell.”

 Khalilov was deported from Sweden in 2023 after unsuccessfully seeking asylum there.

Paralyzed in both arms, Khalilov lived with his wife and three children. The activist was vocal on social media platforms, often criticizing the authorities and calling for protests.  

Drug possession charges are commonly used to target political and civic activists in Azerbaijan. Authorities in Azerbaijan have also been closely monitoring social media platforms, taking various measures against citizens using the platforms to express their criticism against the state. While administrative detentions, fines, or prophylactic “conversations” at police stations are standard measures, long-term arrests are also common. 

While it is difficult to estimate an exact number of politically motivated drug-related charges handed down for online criticism, some of the well-known cases include that of Jabbar Savalan (2011) – a political activist who was arrested on drug charges after calling for protests on Facebook; Hilal Mammadov (2012) – journalist and editor-in-chief of the newspaper Tolishi Sado (charges against the journalist were later expanded to include treason and inciting ethnic hatred); Rashad Ramazanov (2013) – a blogger. There are many others. According to documentation by Azerbaijan Internet Watch, government critics targeted with drug charges include Elshan Teymurov (2020), Elmir Abbasov (2021), Sardar Asgarov (2021), Shahin Haciyev (2021), Razi Humbatov (2022), Mahir Azimov (2023), Ruslan Vahabov (2023), Zeka Miragayev (2023), Elvin Sadigov, Movsum Mammadov (2023). 

media development agency wants another website blocked

According to reporting by Meydan TV, the Media Development Agency (MEDİA) has filed a lawsuit to block the news site “Anaxeber.info.” The website’s editor-in-chief, Azer Talibov, told Meydan TV that the blocking request is linked to the website’s critical reporting covering corruption, government misconduct, and social issues. He claimed that despite multiple requests from the Media Agency and other institutions to remove specific articles, he refused, and this legal action is a form of retaliation. He also mentioned that he did not register with the Media Registry.

Previously, the Media Development Agency had taken similar actions against other websites. On November 14, 2023, the “dia.az” website was blocked, followed by “teref.info” and several others, based on Baku Court of Appeals rulings.

Azerbaijani lawmakers passed the controversial law on media in December 2021. It came into force in 2022. As part of the law, authorities introduced the Media Registry in September 2022, which sparked protests from independent media outlets, journalists, and editors who feared the registry would have grave consequences on media freedom in a country with rampant censorship. 

Critics of the draft law worried the new legal document would seriously threaten media freedom, including online media resources, as it contains provisions granting a discretionary power to the state to regulate media excessively, especially online media, as well as introduce further restrictions on journalists’ work, media companies, and relevant entities. Critics were also vocal about the absence of a broad and meaningful public consultation of the law before its adoption. 

As part of the new law, a registry system for online media outlets and journalists working for online media platforms or working as freelance journalists was envisioned. This and other provisions of the law raised several questions regarding the compliance of the law with the international standards on media freedom.

The Venice Commission issued a negative opinion on the law, and a group of Azerbaijan journalists and media leaders filed a lawsuit with the Constitutional Court of Azerbaijan in 2023, arguing that the law contradicts Azerbaijan’s Constitution and the European Convention on Human Rights. The Constitutional Court has yet to review the case.

The first time Talibov’s website was blocked was in 2018 when the website existed under a different URL – Anaxeber.az. Despite Talibov’s attempt to challenge the decision, he was unsuccessful. In the same year, access to “Az24saat.org” and “Xural.com” were also blocked.

On June 13, 2024, the ECHR ruled in favor of four blocked media outlets, finding that their blocking violated their right to freedom of expression. The court ordered the Azerbaijani government to pay each applicant €5,000 in compensation, but Talıbov claims that the compensation has not yet been paid.

The practice of blocking of websites in Azerbaijan began in 2017 with the blocking of “Azadlıq” Radio (azadliq.org), “Azadlıq” newspaper (azadliq.info), Meydan TV (meydan.tv), Turan TV (turan.tv), and “Azərbaycan Saatı” (azerbaycansaati.org).

At the time, the authorities argued the reasons for blocking these websites were, calls aimed at “forcible change of the constitutional order,” “organization of mass riots,” and other illegal activities. These websites were considered independent and/or platforms affiliated with opposition parties. As a result, the decision to block them was based on legal claims that lacked evidence. This was further reflected in the review process when the decision to block these platforms was implemented. According to EHRAC, “no effective and independent review took place in the first instance decision to block access to the websites in 2017, and in subsequent appeals. The courts accepted the authorities’ allegations at face value and did not attempt to consider or explain adequately why the content was unlawful.”

The intentions behind the blocking decision were further reflected in subsequent actions by the Government of Azerbaijan against the online platforms. Such that, at the time of the first decision to block these websites for access in 2017, the Azerbaijani Government claimed these websites continued disseminating their content through VPN services or social media platforms and therefore the action taken against them did not cause significant changes to the published content. However, in February 2020, the Ministry of Transportation, Communications and High Technologies “requested the domestic courts to impose a ban on the applicants’ ability to share their content through VPN services and social media platforms.”

activist handed down jail sentence over online posts

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

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.

residents forced to remove posts under duress

In Azerbaijan’s administrative district of Imishli (İmişli), scores of residents were detained, internet speed throttled, and, according to reports by local media, all entry and exit points to the town were placed under heavy control by internal troops dispatched to the area. This followed a protest in reaction to an accident reported on January 18, in which four schoolchildren were struck by a police car following a collision with a civilian car. 

Residents first noticed internet throttling following the accident.

In the follow-up reports by local media, several residents who filmed the protests and shared the video content on social media platforms were subject to pressure and intimidation. The content that was posted was forcibly removed. 

Qulu Mammadli, a member of the local branch of the opposition Popular Front Party, was summoned by the authorities on January 19. In an interview with OC Media, Mammadli said that after posting about the internal troops entering the town in the afternoon, he was forced to go in for questioning, and he was also forced to remove the video footage he shared on Facebook earlier that day. Other party members, including Sarvan Ahmadov, were also briefly detained, questioned and forced to remove social media posts, according to reporting by Meydan TV.

A member of the opposition Musavat party, Alikram Khurshidov, was handed a 10-day administrative detention over his social media posts about the accident.

The government of Azerbaijan has throttled internet access before and has deployed an arsenal of surveillance technology to keep tabs on its citizens. An annual report on internet freedoms by Freedom House ranked the country “not free” in its most recent country report.

bogus charges land one man in jail

Hamza Mammadli, 33, was sentenced to six years on January 7, 2025, on spurious terrorism and calls against the state charges, the charges Mammadli denies.

Mammadli, a German citizen of Azerbaijani origin, received asylum in Germany in 2015 and German citizenship in 2022. He traveled to Azerbaijan in 2023 for his wedding and was arrested at the airport. 

Mammadli’s charges were linked to a botched assassination attempt against then-mayor of Ganja Elmar Valiyev in 2018 and what the prosecutor’s office alleged Mammadli wrote about the events on social media, specifically a comment Mammadli has written under a post by satirical online platform Hamam Times. During his defense, Mammadli said he had nothing to do with the person who was later arrested for assassinating the then-mayor.

Upon arriving in Azerbaijan in 2023, Mammadli was arrested at the airport, where he was informed there was an arrest warrant issued in 2018. 

The Azerbaijani government actively monitors social media platforms to track dissent and control the narrative surrounding its policies. This surveillance includes scrutinizing posts by activists, journalists, and ordinary citizens. Authorities have been known to arrest individuals based on their online activities, especially when content is deemed critical of the government. 

The government’s concern over criticisms shared on social media stems from the platform’s ability to rapidly disseminate information and mobilize public opinion. In a country where traditional media is often state-controlled, social media serves as a crucial space for free expression and opposition discourse. Criticism on these platforms can challenge the government’s image, expose corruption, and inspire collective action, which the authorities perceive as threats to their control and stability.

In recent years, there has been a noticeable increase in the arrest of activists and journalists in Azerbaijan on charges such as smuggling or incitement, which many international observers view as attempts to suppress free speech and political opposition. 

authorities arrest another government critic

Famil Khalilov, 34, is Azerbaijani civic activist who was arrested on May 2, 2024. Khalilov was extradited from Sweden in 2023 and since then, lived in Azerbaijan together with his wife and three children. The activist suffers from cerebral palsy and is officially classified with a first degree disability. Authorities however accuse the activist of drug trafficking, the allegation the activist, his lawyer and spouse refute. 

If convicted, Khaliov could face anywhere from five to twelve years behind bars. 

Khalilov often criticized the state on social media.

Authorities in Azerbaijan often resort to offline punitive measures against online critics. 

On May 6, Khalilov’s lawyer Bahruz Bayramov said, the activist was transferred to a medical unit at the detention facility due to deterioration of Khalilov’s health.  

another wave of arrests targets online news platform

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. 

editor of two websites appears in court [updated February 24, 2025]

[Update] On February 24, 2025, Baghirov was sentenced to 12 years in prison and a three-year ban on doing journalism. 

According to local media reports, SalamNews and InterAz founder and editor Matlab Baghirov appeared in court on February 27, 2024. He has been in pretrial detention since January 31, 2023.

According to pro-government media, Baghirov was accused of operating an Iranian spy network. The Ministry of the Interior confirmed these allegations in an interview with Abzas Media in February 2023, saying the arrests were part of the “special operation against an Iranian spy network.”

“They carried out propaganda in favor of Iran through social networks, abused the freedom of religion in Azerbaijan, and carried out the tasks of the Iranian special services in order to undermine the traditions of tolerance formed in the country,” Elshad Hajiyev, the head of the ministry’s public relations department, told AbzasMedia in February 2023. 

In total, some 39 individuals were rounded up, including Baghirov, as a result of the operation. 

The Ministry of the Interior also said the group was engaged in acts of provocation and disruption under the guise of religion. 

The arrests took place at a time, when relations between Iran and Azerbaijan were at their lowest following an armed attack on an Azerbaijani embassy in the capital of Iran on January 27, 2023. As a result, one embassy security personnel was killed and two others were injured. 

Azerbaijan described the attack as a terrorist act and issued a warning to Azerbaijani nationals not to travel to Iran unless necessary. 

The investigation against Baghirov was finalized on February 20, 2024.