Censorship of Dissenting Voices in Azerbaijan: The Ordeal of Gubad Ibadoglu

In a series of events that have raised eyebrows globally, renowned academic, economist, and politician Gubad Ibadoghlu from Azerbaijan was arrested under dubious corruption charges on July 23, 2023.

Ibadoghlu, the founder and chair of the opposition Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Party (ADR), was in his car with his wife, Irada Bayramova, when they were arrested. According to Ibadoghlu's daughter, Zhala Bayramova, they were chased down by at least four cars and dragged out of their vehicle by at least twenty plain-clothed men. Irada Bayramova was released several hours after being brought to the Main Department for the Fight against Organized Crime, but Ibadoghlu was kept until the next day.

The charges against Ibadoghlu were initially based on allegedly finding USD 40,000 in the office of the Economic Research Center, a non-governmental organization founded by him. However, Ibadoghlu's lawyer, Zibeyde Sadighova, reiterated that Ibadoghlu had never even heard of Anar Aliyev, the man whose testimony linked Ibadoghlu to the Fethullah Gulen Terrorist Organisation (FETO).

The Ministry of the Interior stated that Ibadoghlu was detained as part of an operation investigating individuals related to FETO. The Turkish government has deemed the movement a terrorist group responsible for engineering the coup in 2016. The European Parliament adopted a resolution calling for Ibadoghlu's immediate release in September, and on February 15, 2023, the US Congress put forward a resolution condemning the treatment of Ibadoghlu by the authorities and urging for his immediate release.

Zhala Bayramova also claimed that police planted money in her father's office the night before the arrest after breaking in and changing the locks of the office. The cases of the four men arrested over their involvement with FETO are being investigated separately from Ibadoghlu, according to his daughter.

The crackdown on Gulen-linked groups has also reached Azerbaijan, where education centers, schools, newspapers, and universities affiliated with the group were shut down or had their management transferred. This is a pattern of crackdown observed in Azerbaijan over the last two decades.

In a strange twist, the Azerbaijan Youth Education Foundation, launched in June 2023 in the UK, was accused of being a grant eater and serving the interests of the West in a state-backed smear campaign. However, the search results do not provide information about which organization collected donations for this foundation.

Ibadoghlu's health, which had been deteriorating, was a cause for concern even before his arrest. His arrest and subsequent detention, despite these worries and international demands for his immediate release, have led to widespread concern and calls for justice. A court in Baku sentenced Ibadoghlu to four months in pretrial detention on charges that international rights watchdogs called bogus. The charges against Ibadoghlu were later increased, meaning the maximum sentence in case of conviction rose from seven years to twelve.

This saga serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing struggle for freedom and democracy in Azerbaijan and the need for international support in upholding human rights.