Rights activists point to worsening political freedoms in Azerbaijan

In 2024, the human rights situation in Azerbaijan worsened in all the parameters of political freedoms; repressions against journalists and activists intensified, and custody conditions in detention places grew poorer.

"We can state that the freedom of peaceful assembly as a concept has disappeared in Azerbaijan ... People began being persecuted ... not only for their posts, but even for comments to one’s posts," says the report of the NGO "Defence Line", which was presented by Zafar Akhmedov, a member of the NGO.

Repressions against political, social and religious activists have intensified. According to the Union for Azerbaijani Political Prisoners’ Freedom, from December 2023 to December 2024, the number of political prisoners increased from 254 to 331.

The anti-media campaign that was launched in November 2023 with the arrest of Abzas Media journalists continued in 2024 with the criminal cases against journalists from Toplum.tv, Meydan TV, Kanal-13, Məclis.info, sentencing of the head of the Xural TV Internet television Avaz Zeinally, and Bakhtiyar Gadjiev, a blogger and social activist.

Anar Mamedli, the head of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Training Center, and Rufat Safarov, the executive director of the “Defence Line” were also arrested.

Mamedli's arrest was aimed at efficiently eliminating the only election monitoring organization whose observation results were taken into account by international organizations. "While the arrest of Rufat Safarov, in fact, was aimed to liquidate the independent institution for human rights advocacy, which is already in a difficult situation," the NGO has noted.

The report also points to the unjustified persecution of Azer Gasymly, the director of the Political Management Institute, and opposition politicians Tofig Yagublu and Gubad Ibadoglu, Karabakh war veteran Rza Safarsoi and other activists.

"In 2024, the defendants’ and convicts’ custody conditions still failed to meet international standards and have worsened," Mr Akhmedov has stated.

The jails are overcrowded, with up to 27 prisoners staying in cells designed for six inmates. Such overcrowding causes internal conflicts and the spread of diseases.