ECHR blocks Georgia’s extradition of journalist Afgan Sadigov to Azerbaijan

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has banned the extradition of Afgan Sadigov, an Azerbaijani journalist detained in Georgia pending his extradition to Azerbaijan. Following the decision, the journalist ended his hunger strike after 161 days.

The decision came on 27 February, according to local rights group Social Justice Centre (SJC), which said the following day that the ECHR’s final ruling on the case ‘could take years’.

The ECHR temporarily barred Sadigov’s extradition in mid-January after the Tbilisi City Court ruled in favour of extraditing him to Azerbaijan in November 2024.

Sadigov, the head of Azerbaijani news outlet and YouTube channel Azel.tv,  was detained pending an extradition trial in early August 2024. He had been living in Georgia with his family since December 2023 and had planned to leave the country two weeks before his arrest, but was barred by immigration officers at Tbilisi Airport from exiting Georgia.

Sadigov had been on a hunger strike since September 2024 in protest against his detention. His wife, Sevinj Sadigova, warned that his health was sharply deteriorating and that he had lost more than 40 kilogrammes since beginning his hunger strike.

Sadigova told OC Media that her husband ended his hunger strike on 28 February, the day after the ECHR’s decision came out.

‘Now he is under the supervision of a doctor’, she said, adding that the court’s decision was ‘fair’.

‘And I am sure that we will be acquitted in the final decision on this case. Because that is what the laws say’, Sadigova added.

The SJC stated that ‘in the coming days, [they] plan to petition the Tbilisi City Court to change the preventive measure imposed on Sadigov — imprisonment’.

ECHR reportedly temporarily bars Georgia from extraditing Sadigov to Azerbaijan

Sadigov has been on a hunger strike for around 120 days in his own form of protest.

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According to the SJC, the authorities can only detain people for extradition purposes for nine months, with Sadigov’s extradition detention due to expire on 3 May.

‘The Georgian state will not be able to extradite him until the substantive consideration of the case in the Strasbourg Court is completed, and the substantive consideration of the case in the Strasbourg Court may continue for years’, the SJC’s statement read.

‘Accordingly, keeping him in extradition detention would be illegal and groundless. We hope that the court will not groundlessly and arbitrarily keep a journalist who has already been illegally detained in detention for so long’.

Speaking to OC Media, Sadigova said that she ‘can’t say anything about his release, since the Georgian regime can keep him in prison until the end, that is, until 3 May, in order to demonstrate loyalty to [Azerbaijani President Ilham] Aliyev’.

On 8 November 2024, Denis Krivosheev, Amnesty International’s Deputy Director for Eastern Europe and Central Asia, sent letter to Georgia’s then Justice Minister, Rati Bregadze, telling him that Amnesty International ‘believes that Afgan Sadigov is at risk of serious violations of his human rights if he is returned to Azerbaijan, including arbitrary detention, torture and other ill-treatment, and unfair trial’.

‘His extradition would be in breach of Georgia’s obligation under international human rights law not to transfer any person to a place where they would be at real risk of serious human rights violations’, the letter read.

‘The prohibition on torture and other illtreatment is absolute under international law. We call therefore on Georgian authorities to immediately release him and provide him with international protection in line with Georgia’s international obligations’.

Many warn that Sadigov’s extradition to Azerbaijan could lead to his arrest, as the authorities in Baku continue to repress independent media — a crackdown that began in November 2023 with a raid on independent media outlet Abzas Media. More recently, the authorities in Baku detained journalists from Meydan TV, another independent news outlet.

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