Elmir Abbasov, a social media manager at Azerbaijan’s independent Toplum TV, was sentenced to 12 years in jail on July 27, 2026, as part of a verdict handed down in a case against journalists and other individuals associated with the leading news outlet on charges related to receipt and use of foreign funds.
Abbasov is one of at least 26 journalists and media workers from some of Azerbaijan’s last independent news outlets jailed in an unprecedented crackdown since late 2023. Most have been arrested on allegations of bringing Western donor money into the country illegally, amid declining relations with the West following Azerbaijan’s recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh from ethnic Armenian rule in September 2023.
In the Toplum TV case, the Serious Crimes Court in the capital, Baku, found the nine individuals — who include journalists, a journalist trainer, project managers, and the founders of media outlets — guilty of acting as an “organized criminal group” to commit multiple financial crimes connected to the receipt and use of Western donor funds, in violation of Azerbaijani legislation, by four connected organizations: Toplum TV; the nonprofit Institute for Democratic Initiatives (IDI); Fakt Yoxla, a fact-checking platform run by IDI; and Third Republic Platform, a political group.
Abbasov, who was the only defendant to remain free pending trial, was taken into custody after the sentences were delivered on July 27.
Police raided the offices of Toplum TV and IDI and arrested most of those who stood trial in this case in March 2024. In a separate case, Toplum TV presenter Shahnaz Baylargizi is under a travel ban pending investigation on similar charges.
Azerbaijani law requires civil society groups to obtain state approval for foreign grants and authorities say the targeted outlets failed to comply.
In rulings on similar cases, the European Court of Human Rights stressed that such an omission was punishable under Azerbaijani law by fines, not criminal sanctions. Independent experts say that authorities refuse to register independent organizations seeking foreign grants, making it impossible to legally receive the funding.
Azerbaijan was the world’s sixth-worst jailer of journalists in 2025, according to CPJ’s prison census. At present, at least 25 journalists are being held in reprisal for their work. Authorities have also heavily restricted international media and sentenced exiled journalists to lengthy prison terms in absentia.