Azerbaijan extends pretrial detention of 11 journalists ahead of COP29

New York, October 4, 2024—The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the extended pretrial detentions of 11 journalists in recent weeks, and calls on Azerbaijani authorities to release them ahead of the COP29 climate conference in November.

“The continued incarceration of 11 journalists from Azerbaijan’s last remaining critical media outlets cynically ensures that the country’s boldest journalists will not be able to shine a light on corruption and rights abuses during the upcoming COP29,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator, in Warsaw. “Azerbaijan’s international partners should use the media attention around the conference to step up calls to drop all charges and release the jailed journalists amid an intensifying media crackdown in the country.”

The journalists are among 13 media workers from four independent news outlets who have been detained since November 2023 on currency smuggling charges related to alleged Western donor funding, as relations decline between the West and Azerbaijan.

Pretrial detentions of the following journalists have been extended since August 22:

• Toplum TV founder Alasgar Mammadli (three-month extension on October 3)
• Toplum TV video editor Mushfig Jabbar (three-month extension on October 3)
• Kanal 13 director Aziz Orujov (three-month extension on September 19)
• Kanal 13 journalist Shamo Eminov (three-month extension on September 19)
• Abzas Media director Ulvi Hasanli, editor-in-chief Sevinj Vagifgizi, project manager Mahammad Kekalov, journalist Nargiz Absalamova, and investigative journalist Hafiz Babali (three-month extension on September 7)
• Abzas Media journalist Elnara Gasimova (two-month extension on September 6)
• Meclis.info founder Imran Aliyev (three-month extension on August 22)

Toplum TV journalists Farid Ismayilov and Elmir Abbasov have been released under travel bans pending trial.

All of the journalists face up to eight years in prison if convicted of currency smuggling under Azerbaijan’s criminal code.

In August, authorities brought seven new charges against the six Abzas Media journalists, increasing the maximum prison term they face to 12 years.

In September, CPJ joined more than two dozen organizations calling for the release of jailed journalists in Azerbaijan ahead of COP29.