Farid Ismayilov, a reporter for independent news outlet Toplum TV, has been detained since January 2025 on currency smuggling charges in relation to alleged receipt of Western donor funding.
Ismayilov is one of at least 25 journalists and media workers from some of Azerbaijan’s last independent news outlets 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 and 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 staff at the outlet’s affiliated nonprofit Institute of Democratic Initiatives, were charged with currency smuggling after police claimed to find several thousand euros in cash while searching their apartments. Pro-government media, which is known to publish on the orders of the state, cited preliminary investigations claiming Toplum TV 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 — and another Toplum TV journalist were released on health grounds pending trial.
However, Ismayilov was rearrested on January 17, 2025, when authorities announced a series of new economic crime charges against the Toplum TV staff, including tax evasion and money laundering. 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. Lawyers argue that such an omission is punishable by fines and not criminal sanctions.
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.” (Ismayilova is also Ismayilov’s aunt.) 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.”
Ismayilov’s lawyer, Zibeyda Sadygova, called the journalist’s pretrial detention unjustified and told CPJ that he is frail, requiring frequent medical care following the lung surgery.
The trial of the Toplum TV journalists got underway in April 2025. If convicted, they face up to 12 years in prison.
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 August 2025, but did not receive any replies.