Number of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan Reaches 319 – Human Rights Activists

On September 23, the “Union for the Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan” announced an updated list of political prisoners, which now includes 319 individuals. The list was compiled by Leyla Yunus, director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, and Elshan Gasimov, head of the Political Prisoners Monitoring Center.

According to , Gasimov reported that after the publication of the previous list, two people categorized as “believers” – Alyk Aslanov and Elshan Abbasov – were removed. However, the list has been supplemented with 18 new political prisoners.

Notably, the list includes activist Razi Alyshov, who was convicted on drug charges, young economist Fazil Gasimov, young researchers Bahruz Samedov and Iqbal Abilov, as well as former diplomat Emin Ibrahimov. Additionally, the list includes 13 more believers. According to Gasimov, the 319 political prisoners are classified into 10 groups.

Two new groups have emerged: in the “National Minorities” group, in addition to recently arrested Iqbal Abilov, two previously listed representatives of the Talysh people – blogger Aslan Gurbanov and Ruslan Vakhabov – have been included. In another new group, “Anti-war Activists,” are Bahruz Samedov and Emin Ibrahimov.

The “Journalists and Bloggers” group contains 18 individuals, while the “Human Rights Defenders” group includes 3 people, and there are 30 members in the “Opposition Parties and Civil Society Organizations” group.

The “Deported Political Immigrants from Germany” group still has 5 individuals, while there are 7 convicted in the “Terter Case,” 13 in the “Ganja Case,” and 11 serving life sentences. The largest group remains the “Believers,” which now includes 227 political prisoners. The Azerbaijani authorities deny the existence of political prisoners in the country.