New economic charges were brought, between 16 and 19 August, against six employees of the investigative media outlet Abzas Media, which is known for its investigations into corruption. The additional charges could lead to up to 12 years in prison. 

Abzas Media’s chief editor, Sevinc Vaqifqizi; journalist and executive director, Ulvi Hasanli; his assistant, Mahammad Kekalov; and journalist Nargiz Absalamova have been imprisoned since November 2023. Financial editor, Hafiz Babali, has been jailed since December 2023 and, one month later, reporter Elnara Gasimova was arrested in relation to the Abzas Media case. All media employees were arrested on currency smuggling charges.

The new charges that the journalists face are illegal entrepreneurship in relation to a large revenue, money laundering of a large sum, money laundering by an organised group, currency smuggling by an organised group, tax evasion by an organised group, document forgery and use of forged documents.

Abzas Media has been under attack since November 2023, when the country saw a rise in the level of repression targeting investigative outlets and journalists critical of the government. The IFJ and the EFJ have been following the case and campaigning for the release of Abzas Media’s journalists, who have been unjustly imprisoned.

Ahead of COP29

This year, the UN Climate Change Conference, widely known as COP29, will be hosted by the government of Azerbaijan in Baku from 11 to 22 November. Ahead of this international conference, the IFJ and the EFJ call on the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) secretariat, based in Bonn, Germany, to ensure that all COP hosts, including Azerbaijan, comply with international human rights law and do not use the COP as a pretext to censor journalists and civil society activists.

The Council of Europe’s Platform for the Protection of Journalism has documented 23 cases of journalists imprisoned in Azerbaijan simply for doing their job. Among them are six employees of Abzas Media. The repressive rage of the Azerbaijani government is also expressed beyond its borders, as demonstrated by the extradition proceedings initiated in Georgia against the independent journalist Afgan Sadygov.

“We obviously support the #FreeAbzasJournalists campaign, which has just been launched to demand the release of the six journalists from this independent media outlet, but we also demand the immediate release of the 17 other media workers unjustly imprisoned in Azerbaijan, and we also call on Georgia to release Afgan Sadygov,” insists EFJ General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez. “The international delegations attending COP29 should publicly express their solidarity with the imprisoned journalists. They cannot be complicit in the regime’s indiscriminate repression.”

IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger said: “We are witnessing a wave of repression aimed at intimidating all journalists operating in the country, particularly those investigating official corruption. Azerbaijan’s government, which hosts this year's COP29, must understand that a just transition cannot be achieved without freedom of expression. We urge the Azerbaijani authorities to stop targeting media workers and release all unjustly imprisoned journalists without delay.” 

In April 2024, the European Parliament adopted an urgent resolution calling for an “immediate and unconditional release of all political prisoners” in Azerbaijan and for “EU sanctions under its global human rights sanctions regime to be imposed on Azerbaijani officials who have committed serious human rights violations”. 

The IFJ and the EFJ believe that it is high time to move from words to deeds.