Ahmad Mukhtar, a freelance photojournalist who contributed to several media outlets, has been detained since August 2025 in a case against independent outlet Meydan TV over alleged illegal receipt of Western donor funding.
Mukhtar is one of at least 26 journalists and media workers from some of Azerbaijan’s last independent news outlets jailed in an unprecedented crackdown on the independent press since late 2023. Most of them have been arrested on allegations of bringing Western donor money into the country illegally. The crackdown has taken place amid declining relations with the West and a surge in Azerbaijani authoritarianism and following Azerbaijan’s recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh from ethnic Armenian rule in September 2023.
Police in Baku arrested Mukhtar on August 27, 2025, after previously jailing 10 journalists since December 2024 in the case against Meydan TV.
Azerbaijan’s largest independent outlet, Meydan TV regularly reports on alleged government corruption and rights abuses. The outlet closed its Azerbaijani office under government pressure in 2014 and its website has been blocked for many years.
Mukhtar was previously arrested in December 2024 alongside the first six detained Meydan TV journalists and was accused by pro-government media of smuggling Western donor money together with those journalists. He served a 20-day sentence on separate charges of hooliganism and disobeying police and was released without further charges.
On August 28, authorities brought seven new economic crime charges against Meydan TV, including tax evasion and money laundering. The new charges increase the maximum sentence the journalists could face to 12 years in prison.
The same day, a court ordered Mukhtar to be held in pretrial detention for 40 days in the Meydan TV case. CPJ was unable to determine the latest charges against Mukhtar.
Meydan TV denied that Mukhtar contributed to the outlet.
CPJ emailed the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the Office of the Prosecutor General, and the office of Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev for comment in September 2025, but did not receive any replies.