Azerbaijan - September 2026

On 7 September, a Baku court sentenced prominent human rights defender and election monitor Anar Mammadli to 13 years imprisonment on charges including currency smuggling, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, money laundering and document forgery. His co-defendant, journalist Anar Abdullayev, received a 12-year sentence. International human rights organizations said the trial was marked by serious procedural concerns and described the charges as politically motivated fabrications. Mammadli chairs the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Centre, Azerbaijan’s only remaining independent election-monitoring organization, and Abdullayev has also cooperated with the organization. The conviction follows a broader crackdown on independent media and civil society groups, including lengthy prison sentences imposed on journalists and civic activists earlier in 2026. 

Sources: Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, Free Voices Collective