Detained Azerbaijani activist and OC Media contributor Bahruz Samadov has spoken with his grandmother about the possibility of committing suicide. Samadov has been convicted of treason and is currently serving a 15-year prison sentence on charges he denies and says are politically motivated.
‘I beg [you] Bahruz, don’t do such things, like committing suicide or [going on] hunger strike’, Samadov’s grandmother Zibeyda Osmanova asked him on Monday during a visit to Umbaki prison, where Samadov is being held.
She told OC Media that Samadov’s friends had also told him to stop doing such things.
On Tuesday, Azerbaijani journalist and commentator Javid Agha wrote on X that Samadov said that he would succeed in killing himself on the third attempt.
News from @bahruz_samad:
— Cavid #FreeUlviyya (@cavidaga) August 12, 2025
He met his grandmother today. He told her that since the peace treaty was signed, being unjustly kept in prison hurts him even more now. He said he cannot find peace for himself in the cell.
So far, once while being held at the State Security Service…
During the visit on Monday, Osmanova said that Samadov ‘repeated that he was innocent, and asked what he was guilty of. I only reminded him of Tofig Yagublu, who went on a hunger strike for 40 days, and was sentenced to nine years’.
Yagublu is an opposition politician who was sentenced to nine years in prison on charges of fraud and forgery in mid-March. He has been on a hunger strike since 1 April in protest of the court’s ruling.
Osmanova added that when she saw Samadov, he had ‘lost weight and looked so nervous, depressed. He constantly asked, “Why was I not released because Azerbaijan and Armenia signed the peace treaty? I’m also a prisoner of peace. Why aren’t they letting me go? Why are they prolonging it so much?”, his questions I have no answers’.
During the visit, Samadov also asked Osmanova to send a letter to influential presidential aide Hikmat Hajiyev regarding his case.
Osmanova stressed that their meeting took place behind the glass of the prison, and during the conversation, Samadov also complained about ‘why the trials were being held behind closed doors for journalists and his friends’.
She told OC Media that Samadov did not mention torture in the prison during the conversation, and that she believes that if he was faced with pressure, he would have told her about it.
Samadov was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of treason in June.
On Wednesday, Samadov’s next appeal hearing was scheduled to be held.
Aytan Farhadova
