Azerbaijani authorities are escalating their campaign against independent and critical voices abroad, issuing arrest warrants and summonses for exiled journalists, activists, and analysts on what appear to be politically motivated charges. The moves fit a long-running pattern of efforts to crush dissent and restrict freedom of expression both inside Azerbaijan and beyond its borders.
Earlier in November, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that the Binagadi District Court had issued arrest warrants in absentia for several exiled figures charged under multiple articles of Azerbaijan’s criminal code. Those targeted include Osmangizi, Ganimat Zahid, and Beydulla Manafov, journalists; Abid Gafarov, a blogger; Altay Goyushov, a historian; Arastun Oruclu, a political analyst; and Vagif Allahverdiyev, founder of the YouTube channel Victor Alexander.
Osmangizi, Gafarov, Oruclu, Allahverdiyev, and Goyushov are being investigated under criminal code articles 220.2 and 281.2 for “calls for mass disorder” and “public calls against the state,” offences which authorities frequently misuse to criminalize lawful exercise of freedoms of expression and assembly. Manafov faces the same “anti-state” accusation under article 281.2, along with an additional charge under article 283.1 for “inciting national, racial, social, or religious hatred.”
The alleged factual basis for these criminal investigations remains unclear, though it is evident that all those targeted are outspoken critics of the Azerbaijani government’s human rights failings and regularly voice their concerns online.
These cases reflect the authorities’ longstanding practice of abusing the criminal justice system to silence critics, which Human Rights Watch has extensively documented over many years.
Since November 2023, Azerbaijani authorities have arrested journalists, political activists, rights defenders, and scholars on spurious financial and other criminal charges, including illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion, and document forgery.
The latest wave of targeting Azerbaijanis abroad follows multiple criminal investigations in March 2025 against several exiled bloggers, accusing them of offenses including fraud, terrorism, inciting riots, disobeying official orders, and attempting a coup. Since then, the courts have issued numerous arrest warrants and handed down convictions in absentia. Most recently, in September, a court sentenced a France-based blogger, Mahammad Mirzali, in absentia to six and a half years in prison on several charges, including inciting mass unrest.
Azerbaijani authorities should immediately drop all politically motivated charges, end their relentless crackdown on independent voices at home and abroad, and uphold their international obligations to respect free expression and association.
