Reporter Farid Ismayilov is serving a 12-year prison sentence in Azerbaijan after he was convicted in July 2026 on multiple economic crime charges related to alleged receipt of Western donor funding by his outlet, Toplum TV.
Ismayilov is one of at least 25 journalists and media workers from some of Azerbaijan’s last independent news outlets who have been arrested 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 and a surge in Azerbaijani authoritarianism following Azerbaijan’s recapture of Nagorno-Karabakh from ethnic Armenian rule in September 2023.
Police in Baku raided Toplum TV’s office in March 2024 and detained at least 10 staff, releasing most of them after questioning. Three journalists, including Ismayilov, as well as Toplum TV founder Alasgar Mammadli and several members of the outlet’s affiliated nonprofit Institute of Democratic Initiatives (IDI) and the linked political reform group Third Republic Platform, were charged with currency smuggling after police claimed to have found several thousand euros in cash while searching their homes.
Pro-government media, which is known to publish on the orders of the state, cited preliminary investigations claiming Toplum TV and IDI had illegally obtained over half a million dollars from Western donors to foment unrest.
On March 8, 2024, Ismayilov — who had recently undergone major lung surgery — was released on health grounds pending trial, together with Toplum TV journalist Elmir Abbasov.
Ismayilov was rearrested on January 17, 2025, when authorities announced a series of new economic crime charges, including tax evasion and money laundering, against staff at Toplum TV and the linked organizations. A video published by pro-government media accused Ismayilov of passing information to “anti-Azerbaijan” individuals and organizations, including CPJ.
Azerbaijani law requires civil society groups to obtain state approval for foreign grants, which authorities accuse Toplum TV and other leading independent media of failing to do
In rulings on similar cases, the European Court of Human Rights found 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 them.
Khadija Ismayilova, Toplum TV’s chief editor and a multiple award-winning investigative journalist jailed from 2014 to 2016 in retaliation for her work, told CPJ the charges against the outlet were “absolutely absurd.”
Shortly after the police raid, Toplum TV’s Instagram account was deleted, and its YouTube channel was renamed and its content deleted. Ismayilova said this showed that authorities’ “real intention” is to “silence any platform where criticism is expressed.”
The trial of Ismayilov and eight other individuals associated with Toplum TV, IDI, and Third Republic Platform got underway in April 2025.
In a statement after prosecutors requested a 13-year prison sentence for him on the economic charges in June 2026, Ismayilov denied committing any crimes, saying his prosecution proved that “in the country we live in, journalism is a crime.” Ismayilov noted that if he and his colleagues had been accused of terrorism, they would have faced significantly shorter prison terms.
On July 27, 2026, Baku’s Serious Crimes Court sentenced the nine defendants – including Toplum TV founder Mammadli, Ismayilov, and two other Toplum TV journalists – to between 12 and 15 years in prison. Ismayilov was handed a 12-year prison term.
CPJ emailed the Office of the Prosecutor General in July 2026 and the Ministry of Internal Affairs and office of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev in August 2025 for comment but did not receive any replies.