Azerbaijani labour rights activist sentenced to 8 years in prison

Afiaddin Mammadov was arrested in September 2023 and was accused of several crimes. Mammadov was just one of several members of the Azerbaijani labour rights group the Workers Table Unions Confederation (WTUC).

Mammadov was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of hooliganism and intentionally causing serious bodily harm to someone.

Three other members, Elvin Mustafayev, Aykhan Israfilov, and Mohiaddin Orujov have also been arrested.

The WTUC was established in March 2022 by activists who tried to defend the rights of workers. After creating the organisation, the founders shared a statement concerning new proposed legislation that had the potential to negatively impact the lives of Azerbaijani couriers.

According to the draft amendments to the Law on Road Traffic, adopted by the Azerbaijani Parliament in December 2022, motorcycles that have the capability of exceeding 50 kilometres an hour require drivers to have a registration plate and a driver’s license.

Criticising the proposed law, the WTUC’s statement said that in order to obtain a registration plate, motorcycle drivers must submit a customs declaration, but noted the inherent contradiction that the required document is not issued at the places where motorcycles are sold.

‘Since motorcycles are imported into the country as spare parts for tax evasion, retail outlets refuse to provide this document. Corruption in the country is also evident in this area’, the statement said.

In August 2023, Azerbaijani couriers protested the legislative changes. After the protest, Mammadov was arrested and detained for one month on charges of minor hooliganism and disobedience of police orders.

He was released the same month, but promptly arrested again the following month on the charges he has now been convicted of.

The other three detained members of the WTUC were arrested on drug trafficking charges, which the government has been repeatedly accused of fabricating as a means of repressing perceived dissidents.

‘If there’s a neck, there’s a rope to hang it with…’

Tuesday was the end of Mammadov’s trial, and the judge offered him a chance to make a final statement, which he used to describe the many injustices he faced in the 14 years he had spent as a labourer.  ‘[…] And eventually, I had to quit my job because I could not put up with the exploitation and injustice. But I could not put up with silence and continued to make decisive decisions. Even though my suffering is great […] Because it is unacceptable for me to chase empty hopes, forgetting about reality’, Mammadov said.

He also mentioned the arrest of his fellow board members, and stated that they were accused of ‘such absurd crimes as drug trafficking, drug use, hooliganism, and assault with a bladed weapon (against a stranger)’.

‘[…] Despite the fact that I said that I was handcuffed from behind and had a knife [forced] into my hand at the […] police station, even though we asked for video recordings (our requests were not granted), the testimonies of the “victim” and “witnesses” differed both during the investigation and in court, the prosecutor, who decided that I was a criminal, demanded 10 years in prison for me’, Mammadov said in court.

‘As Dina Kaminskaya says in her book, “Notes of a Lawyer”: “If there is a neck, there will be a rope to hang it with” […] Accusations of crimes we did not commit are punishment for our opposition to the ruling class,’ Mammadov said, adding that despite everything, he is still ‘full of hope and does not worry about the punishment that will come to me for living an honest life’.

‘I place my hopes on the youth. I believe that they will continue the path we have started. The working people of this country will have the right to vote! The golden star is approaching, the dark sky will light up!’, Mammadov concluded.

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