New York, September 20, 2024 – The Committee to Protect Journalist calls on Azerbaijani authorities to immediately release researcher and freelance journalist Bahruz Samadov, detained since August 21 on treason charges.
“As Azerbaijan’s crackdown widens to envelop ever more journalists, activists, and academics, Bahruz Samadov’s penetrating critiques of Azerbaijani authoritarianism and militarism amid the ongoing conflict with Armenia seem to have played a major role in his arrest,” said Gulnoza Said, CPJ’s Europe and Central Asia program coordinator. “Criticism does not equate to treason. Azerbaijani authorities must drop the charges against Samadov and stop their escalating repression against dissenting voices.”
Officers from Azerbaijan’s State Security Service arrested Samadov, a doctoral student in the Czech Republic and contributor to Georgia-based OC Media and U.S.-based Eurasianet, while he was visiting the country and searched his family home in the capital, Baku, citing a drug inquiry. On August 23, a Baku court ordered him to be held in pre-trial detention for four months on treason charges.
Samadov’s lawyer, Zibeyda Sadygova, told CPJ that authorities accuse Samadov of passing unspecified information to Armenia. Samadov denies the treason charges, which carry up to 20 years in prison, she said.
A video report by pro-government media, reportedly using information from authorities’ investigation, denounced Samadov as an anti-war activist and accused him of writing “subversive” articles for the “anti-Azerbaijan”Eurasianet.
Rustam Ismayilbayli, a friend of Samadov’s, told CPJ that he believes Samadov was targeted both as a prominent peace advocate and for his journalism, which includes columns on Azerbaijani militarism and authoritarianism.
Meanwhile, authorities detained peace advocates and freelance journalists, Samad Shikhi on August 23 and Javid Agha on August 27, at Baku airport as they attempted to leave the country. They were questioned in relation to Samadov’s case, banned from travel, and released.
CPJ emailed the State Security Service of Azerbaijan for comment on Samadov’s case but did not receive a reply.