The Baku Court of Grave Crimes has sentenced the US-based politician Arastun Orujlu in absentia to eight years in prison for ‘calls for mass riots’. The day before, Altay Goyushov, a scholar and historian living in France, was convicted of ‘inciting open protests against the state’ and sentenced in absentia by the same court to six years in prison.
The pro-government media outlet APA wrote that Orujlu ‘made and disseminated open calls [on YouTube] encouraging the use of force against the current government’.
The first time Orujlu was summoned for questioning to the Prosecutor’s General Office, he did not appear, but said he never called for ‘a coup, an uprising, or anything’ like that.
‘This is the legal aspect of the issue. But talking about the law in Azerbaijan is nonsense. We’ve seen for years the crimes committed in Azerbaijan and how those who commit them are rewarded’, he added.
According to APA, Goyushov was convicted for comments made on social media with a ‘group of individuals’ that allegedly constituted calls for the use of force against the government.
While Orujlu has not yet commented on his sentencing, Goyushov stated on social media that it was President Ilham Aliyev who was ‘the criminal’.
‘[President Ilham Aliyev and his family] violated this constitutional structure and turned the country into a de facto absolute monarchy. This is a crime, and a criminal committed it’.
Goyushov added that speaking about the situation in the country should not be a crime, but rather a ‘contribution to the restoration of the constitutional structure of the state’.
‘Opposing these crimes, demanding the restoration of the constitutional structure, is not only my right but also my civic duty. In other words, opposing all of the crimes I’ve listed and the criminal who committed them is not a crime, but a fight against crime, against the criminal’, he concluded.
The convictions are the latest in an ongoing trend of government repression against exiled critics.
In December 2025, Ganimat Zaidov, editor-in-chief of the Azadliq newspaper, was charged with making open calls against the state on social media and sentenced to seven years in jail in absentia.
On 12 February, his name was added by the State Security Service (DTX) to a second criminal case related to disgraced former presidential aide Ramiz Mehdiyev, who has been accused of orchestrating a coup.
Aytan Farhadova
