Detained Azerbaijani journalist transferred to Georgia prison hospital following hunger strike

Detained Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Sadigov has been transferred to a prison hospital in Georgia on his 17th day of hunger strike.

Sadigov has been in extradition custody in Gldani prison in Tbilisi since 4 August. 

Sadigova told Netgazeti on Tuesday that she was informed about her husband’s transfer to the hospital late Monday night.

‘I asked [to] talk to my husband, so I could hear his voice’, she said, adding that she was denied permission. ‘They called me late at night, but I don’t know who it was. They told me that [they were calling] from prison and that [my] husband has become ill’.

She suggested that her husband was in ‘very bad’ condition.

Later on Tuesday, human rights organisation Rights Georgia stated that their lawyers met Sadigov in the prison hospital, and that the prison administration had transferred Sadigov due to his health condition.

Sadigov began his hunger strike on 21 September, after the Migration Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs refused to grant him asylum in Georgia on 16 September.

‘According to [his] lawyers, Sadigov is under the supervision of doctors and is conscious, although his health condition is serious’, Rights Georgia reported.

Both human rights defenders and Sadigov’s wife have been warning for several days that the journalist’s condition was serious and that it was difficult for him to walk.

Sadigov, the editor-in-chief of the Azerbaijani media Azel.TV, was originally arrested in Tbilisi on 3 August. He arrived with his family in Georgia in December 2023 and was going to leave the country two weeks before his arrest, but was not allowed to do so at the airport.

On 4 August, Tbilisi City Court sentenced him to three-months in detention, awaiting extradition. His wife stated at the time that Sadigov’s life was at risk if he was prosecuted and extradited to Azerbaijan.

[Read more: Demonstration in Tbilisi against extradition of Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Sadigov]

In 2016, Sadigov was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on charges of aggravated assault, with the sentence later reduced by one year. 

He was again arrested in 2020 and sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of extortion. The sentence was reduced to four years after a presidential pardon in May 2022.

Sadigova told Netgazeti that her husband previously went on hunger strike for 242 days while in prison in Azerbaijan, and that this left his health condition very weak.

A renewed crackdown on journalism in Azerbaijan began in November 2023, with more than 10 journalists currently in prison in what is recognised by international rights and media organisations as political persecution. 

[Read more: Editorial | Ilham Aliyev’s attempt to eradicate the free press cannot succeed]