Conviction and Sentencing Details
The Baku Court on Grave Crimes sentenced Mr. Anar Mammadli to 13 years in prison on September 7, 2026. In addition to the custodial term, the court disqualified him from holding certain positions for three years. The charges against Mr. Mammadli include currency smuggling, illegal entrepreneurship, tax evasion, and money laundering. He has consistently denied all allegations brought against him.
Mr. Mammadli is currently detained at the Baku Pre-Trial Detention facility, where he has been held since April 2024 pending his transfer to a strict-regime correctional institution. His sentencing follows a legal process that began shortly after Azerbaijan’s presidential elections held on February 7, 2024.
Background and Prior Legal History
Anar Mammadli is a Václav Havel Human Rights Prize Laureate and the founder of the Election Monitoring and Democracy Studies Center (EMDS). He has spent nearly three decades promoting democratic participation, independent election observation, and human rights in Azerbaijan. His arrest on April 29, 2024, occurred shortly after he participated in international human rights advocacy activities at the UN Human Rights Council and the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
This is not the first time Mr. Mammadli has faced imprisonment for his civic work. In 2013, he was sentenced to five and a half years in prison following election-monitoring activities, before being released in 2016. In 2018, the European Court of Human Rights ruled that his detention was politically motivated. The recent events are viewed by observers as a continuation of efforts to silence his legitimate activities.
Accusations of Political Repression
The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a partnership between the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), issued an urgent appeal regarding the case. The organization states that prior to his arrest, state-controlled media conducted a sustained smear campaign against Mr. Mammadli and EMDS following their independent monitoring of the presidential elections.
The Observatory characterizes the conviction and sentence as arbitrary detention linked solely to Mr. Mammadli’s legitimate human rights and election-monitoring work. It notes that this case is part of a broader crackdown on human rights defenders, journalists, and independent civil society actors in Azerbaijan, particularly in the wake of the 2024 presidential and parliamentary elections.
International Response and Demands
In its appeal dated September 9, 2026, the Observatory called on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately and unconditionally release Mr. Mammadli and all other human rights defenders detained for exercising fundamental rights. The organization demanded that the government quash the conviction and all associated charges, guarantee the physical integrity and psychological well-being of detainees, and implement measures to protect defenders from reprisals.
The appeal urged contact with President Ilham Aliyev, Vice President Mehriban Aliyeva, Prime Minister Ali Asadov, and various ministers, including Justice Farid Ahmadov and Foreign Affairs Jeyhun Bayramov. It also requested engagement with Azerbaijan’s diplomatic missions in Geneva, Brussels, and other countries to ensure international attention to the case.
This report was produced by the HuMedia newsroom.
