The family of a UK-based Azerbaijani academic and democracy advocate is calling for his release from an Azerbaijani prison after he was detained on “spurious” charges while visiting relatives.
Gubad Ibadoghlu, a senior visiting fellow at the London School of Economics (LSE) since 2021, was arrested in Azerbaijan for allegedly possessing religious extremist material on 23 July – a charge that he denies.
Ibadoghlu’s son, Ibad Bayramov, has told openDemocracy that his father’s health is rapidly “declining” while in prison and that he is being denied access to medical care despite a serious pre-existing heart condition.
“We are very worried about many things, especially his health conditions,” Bayramov said.
Shortly before his arrest, Ibadoghlu – a prominent critic of Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and his government – planned to publish research into Azerbaijani spending in and around Nagorno-Karabakh, which Azerbaijan regained from Armenian control during a 44-day-war fought in 2020.
“A huge sum of money has been allocated to the region by the Azerbaijan government. We know that it’s very likely that they are actually putting a big proportion of that money into their own pockets,” said Bayramov, referencing the role of companies close to the Aliyev regime in rebuilding Nagorno-Karabakh.
In June, Ibadoghlu had registered a charity in England and Wales that was intended to finance scholarships for Azerbaijani students wanting to study abroad.
Bayramov told openDemocracy that his father hoped to convince the UK National Crime Agency to redirect funds that British authorities confiscated from Azerbaijani oligarchs to the charity, the Azerbaijani Youth Educational Foundation – a plan that he believes may have played a role in his father’s arrest.
Ibadoghlu had also previously sought to expose the Aliyev family’s extensive property empire in London, which he filmed on his YouTube channel.
On Friday 1 September, six weeks after his arrest, Ibadoghlu developed intense chest pain, Bayramov said. The prison authorities have not fully medically examined him since 4 August and are keeping his health conditions secret from the public.
Ibadoghlu has type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, a stomach ulcer, and a number of other medical issues, including aortic root expansion in his heart, which, if it expands any more, could cause a heart attack, doctors in the UK have told him.
External organisations and doctors have not been allowed to see Ibadoghlu since his imprisonment, including the Red Cross, which has visited the detention centre where the economist is being held on three occasions.
“The prison doctor doesn’t give us any information so we can’t take a prescription to a pharmacy or a doctor. They do this on purpose,” Bayramov said, claiming his family has a letter from an NHS doctor saying that if Ibadoghlu doesn’t take his pills – he takes eight a day – “his life would be at risk”.
Bayramov continued: “These days they are giving him his medicine but they are delaying it on purpose or not giving him the right amount. This is all psychological abuse – they are trying to get him to give up.”
The 52-year-old has lost 15 kilograms since being detained nearly two months ago. Prison guards have refused him food and clean drinking water on numerous occasions, according to his son.
“The Azerbaijan government has done this before; they are known for releasing people [from prison] when their health conditions become so dire. They leave you in such a bad condition that you have no power left to fight,” Bayramov said.
In a well-known case from 2015, Leyla and Arif Yunus, husband and wife human rights activists, were released in appalling health after almost two years in prison. They had to travel abroad to seek urgent medical treatment and were still frail a year later. “We were thrown in jail, beaten, tortured. They stole our health,” Leyla Yunus told Radio Free Europe a year after her release. “They released us only because we were dying and they got scared.”
‘No one can feel safe’
On 23 July, Ibadoghlu and his wife, Irada Bayramli, were travelling to visit his sick mother outside of Baku, when their car was stopped by 20 people in civilian clothes. They were beaten and taken to police custody. Bayramli was released later that day, with bruises all over her arms, according to her son.
Ibadoghlu was initially charged with manufacturing and selling counterfeit money, which Bayramov alleges was planted in his father’s old office in Baku – a space he hadn’t used in nine years. He was later charged with the preparation, storage, and distribution of religious extremist materials.
Iskra Kirova, the advocacy director for Europe and Central Asia at Human Rights Watch, told openDemocracy that the charges are “completely unfounded” and will have a “chilling effect” on the rest of civil society in Azerbaijan, which has faced a wide-ranging crackdown in recent years.
“It really also indicates that no one can really feel safe and that any criticism of the authorities will be met with a very harsh response,” Kirova said.
Kirova added that Ibadoghlu’s detention conditions are “very concerning” and that there have been a number of violations. These include being denied access to his lawyer, whom Kirova said has been warned by Azerbaijani authorities that she could be disbarred for representing him.
The number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan has doubled since last September, when there were 99 such detainees. Today, there are 204, according to The Azerbaijan Freedom for Political Prisoners Union.
“It is very well-known that all decisions – especially in the political cases – are decided by the government” Ibad Bayramov
Bayramov told openDemocracy that he has “zero belief in a fair trial” in Azerbaijan. “It is very well-known that all decisions – especially in the political cases – are decided by the government.”
A profile of Azerbaijan by Washington-based human rights defenders Freedom House appears to confirm his fears – stating that the country’s judiciary is “corrupt and subservient to the executive”, with judges appointed by the Parliament on the proposal of the president.
A spokesperson for LSE said the university’s Department of International Relations is “deeply concerned” about the detention of Ibadoghlu, whom they described as a “hugely respected member of LSE’s academic community”.
The UK issued a joint statement with the US, Germany, and France, saying they were “closely following” Ibadoghlu’s arrest, and called on the Azerbaijani government to respect his human rights, “including access to medication and fair legal process”.
The European parliament is planning to vote on an urgent resolution on Ibadoghlu’s case on 14 September – the first step in condemning Azerbaijan for his imprisonment. The resolution will be non-binding, and Bayramov said further action may be necessary if Azerbaijan does not abide by the resolution.
Kirova criticised the international community – particularly the European Union and the UK, which are important trading partners with Azerbaijan – for taking too long to act. She said they must also go further and send a “much stronger message” by increasing public pressure on the country. The Azerbaijan-EU gas deal is helping the bloc reduce its reliance on Russian energy, while British oil firm BP is one of the largest foreign investors in Azerbaijan.
“It's very difficult to see how a government that perpetrates these kinds of domestic abuses can really rehabilitate its image internationally and establish these kinds of relationships with the West,” she says, adding that the human rights situation in Azerbaijan should not be “eclipsed by other concerns and other interests in the region.”
Bayramov has been allowed only one phone call with his father since he was detained. It took place two weeks ago and lasted three minutes.
“When he called me he said, ‘everything is good, don’t worry, keep focusing on your studies. Everything will be fine,’” Bayramov said. “He is the kind of man who fought alone all his life – he would always talk about how it’s important to fight for what you believe in.”
