Azerbaijan sentences blogger to seven years in prison for extortion

Azerbaijani blogger Arzu Sayadoghlu Mammadov, who criticised the government on his YouTube channel, has been sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of attempting to extort the director of a local district’s culture house.

According to indictment, Mammadov was accused of attempting to extort ₼6,000 ($3,600) from the director of the Tovuz District Culture House, Asif Gasimov. When Gasimov allegedly failed to pay, Mammadov purportedly distributed a video showing a number of local government employees cleaning the streets and courtyards of a municipal building ahead of a visit from Azerbaijan’s Culture Minister Adil Karimli.

RFE/RL reported that the video was recorded in August 2023, and that any employees who refused to act as street cleaners were threatened with dismissal.

During the trial, Gasimov stated that several months after he refused to give Mammadov money, he heard from a friend that the footage was being distributed online.

‘After that, the family members of the employees also called and criticised me. I was interrogated about this video at the level of the culture department and the ministry to which I reported’, RFE/RL quoted Gasimov as saying in court.

Following the release of the footage in January 2024, Gasimov filed a complaint with Azerbaijan’s State Security Service.

Soon after, on 23 January 2024, Mammadov went missing. At the time, human rights defender Rufat Safarov, now himself imprisoned, told Voice of America that the blogger’s last appearance was on the anti-government YouTube channel AzadSoz, where he called on people to hold peaceful protests.

Three days later, it was revealed he had been detained by Azerbaijan’s State Security Service.

Mammadov has consistently proclaimed his innocence, claiming that he had been arrested on a political order due to the government criticism he presented on his YouTube channel. He additionally claimed the video in question was first shown on independent online TV channel Kanal 13.

‘I took [the video] from there [Kanal 13] and made a video for my channel. I did not meet this person, where did I demand ₼6,000 from him? On the day when he ordered cultural figures to clean the streets in Tovuz, I was not in Tovuz at all, but in Baku. This person lies from beginning to end’, Sayadoghlu said in court.

He has stated that he will appeal the verdict.

Azerbaijani activist sentenced to six years in prison for social media post

Independent Azerbaijani media said the activist had only shared his support for political prisoners.

OC MediaAytan Farhadova