Labour activist briefly detained in Azerbaijan

Sara Rahimova, a board member of the Labour Desk Confederation of Trade Unions, was briefly detained in Baku on Tuesday. According to a message she texted to friends, Rahimova faced police brutality during the initial detention and was forcibly taken to the police station, where she was unreachable for 15 hours.

On Tuesday, attached to the text message was a photo Rahimova took from inside the police car, showing two people in police uniforms sitting in the front seats.

Information about her detention was shared on social media by another labour union activist, Tural Farzili, who posted that Rahimova was detained by police ‘with violence, and according to her information, cruelty, and is currently being taken to the station’.

‘It is assumed that she was detained in the Ganjlik metro station territory. It is unknown which police station she is being taken to, and the reason for her detention. It is currently impossible to contact her’, Farzili wrote.

Later, independent journalist Ulviyya Ali wrote privately that ‘there has been no news from Sara Rahimova for five hours’.

‘We called and wrote messages to all possible persons in the press service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (Elshad Hajiyev, Zeyni Huseynov, Ibrahim Amiraslanli, Elbrus Ibrahimov [representatives of the press secretary of the Ministry of Internal Affairs]), some of them said that they were not informed, and some did not respond’, Ali said.

She stressed that she also called the Public Defender's Office and the police hotline.

‘Sara’s whereabouts are unknown, but the photo she sent us clearly shows that she was detained by the police. Lawyers also looked for her, but, according to them, she was not in Narimanov police departments No. 16, 17, 18, nor the Narimanov district police department. Nothing else new’, she wrote.

Rahimova’s whereabouts remained unknown until her release on Wednesday at 13:30.

Speaking to OC Media, Farzili emphasised that all activists in Azerbaijan are prepared to be detained, but that they remain afraid for their family members and close friends.

‘If I do not have a chance to inform them about the detention, the state agencies that are responsible for this also will not say anything to my family members. The same thing happened with Sara’, he said.

‘The four police officers kidnapped Sara, and they questioned her about why she needed this activism and asked many questions about her life, her family members, and friends. We know that we are activists and that every minute, something bad can happen to us. In such a horrible situation, if we cannot inform our friends about the detention, no one would know where we are’.

On 16 April, LabourStart, an international labour news site, launched a petition calling on Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to release Labour Desk Confederation of Trade Unions chair Afiaddin Mammadov, as well as members Aykhan Israfilov, Elvin Mustafayev, and Mohyaddin Orujov.

Mammadov was arrested in September 2023 and was sentenced to eight years in prison on charges of hooliganism and intentionally causing serious bodily harm to someone.

Israfilov and Mustafayev were arrested on drug charges in August 2023. Both were sentenced to three years in prison in 2024, while Orujov, who was detained in October 2023 also on drug charges, was sentenced to three years in prison in February.

International labour movement launches campaign to free detained labour activists in Azerbaijan

An international labour rights group has launched a campaign demanding the release of four labour rights activists in Azerbaijan.

OC MediaAytan Farhadova