Azerbaijani authorities have placed a travel ban on Saleh Rustamli, a former member of the opposition Popular Front Party (PFP). Rustamli was previously sentenced to seven years in prison in 2019 on charges of money laundering before being pardoned by Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev in 2022, after which he left the country.
Rustamli’s son, Sezgin Rustamli, wrote about the travel ban on social media on Tuesday.
Following this, Saleh Rustamli’s lawyer, Bahruz Bayramov, told independent media outlet Meydan TV that Rustamli had learned about the ban while at the airport in Baku. The Azerbaijani Border Service did not provide him any details as to the reason behind the ban.
Rustamli, who reportedly only holds Russian citizenship, was visiting Azerbaijan to attend his niece’s funeral.
On Thursday, he provided OC Media with documents confirming that he resides in Azerbaijan on the basis of a temporary residence permit. According to the document, which was issued in July 2024, he has valid residency in Azerbaijan until July 2026.
However, Rustamli added that despite having a temporary residence permit, the Migration Service sent him a letter in September 2025 claiming that he was an Azerbaijani citizen.
His son Sezgin Rustamli told OC Media that his father’s citizenship status had always been an issue, because when he was originally detained back in May 2018, the indictment also stated that he was an Azerbaijani citizen.
Rustamli served as the head of the Gadabay region under the presidency of Abulfaz Elchibey. He has been living in Russia since 1998.
In May 2018, he was arrested on drug charges in the city of Shamkir while visiting Azerbaijan — his nephew Vidadi Rustamov was arrested shortly there after on the same charges
Later that month, other PFP members — Babak Hasanov, Agil Maharramli, and Ruslan Nasirli — were also detained. In a joint statement by the Prosecutor General’s Office and the Interior Ministry, all five were accused of money laundering, and the drug charges were dropped.
According to the claim, Saleh Rustamli illegally transferred $420,000 to the PFP.
Rustamli said he had been a member of the PFP for many years, and that he and other Azerbaijanis frequently sent money from their earnings to help the families of political prisoners. He added that he had only sent around $10,000 since going to Russia.
In February 2019, he was sentenced to seven years and three months in prison. During his time in prison, he spent 40 days on hunger strike in protest of his imprisonment.
Ismi Aghayev
In May 2022, he was pardoned by Aliyev. At that time, he was also forced to leave Azerbaijan.
‘The authorities warned him that he was a Russian citizen and that if he did not leave Azerbaijan immediately, he might face deportation’, his son Sezgin Rustamli told OC Media.
Rustamli is the latest figure associated with or is a member of the PFP to be subjected to some form of pressure by the Azerbaijani authorities.
In mid-November, the leader of the party’s Khatai branch, Faig Naghiyev, had disappeared, and was believed to have been arrested.
At least 10 members of the PFP party have been detained since March, according to party chair Ali Karimli.
Yousef Bardouka
