Imran Aliyev, founder of Meclis.info, a website that publishes news and analysis about Azerbaijan’s parliament, has been detained since April 2024 on currency smuggling charges related to alleged receipt of Western donor funding.
Aliyev is one of at least 16 journalists and media workers – 15 of whom CPJ reported on in November and one whose case we confirmed in mid-December – charged with serious crimes between late 2023 and December 1, 2024, in a major crackdown on the independent press and civil society in Azerbaijan. Most of the journalists have been arrested on similar funding accusations amid a decline in relations between Azerbaijan and the West.
Officers from Azerbaijan’s State Border Service detained Aliyev at Baku International Airport on April 18.
Earlier that day, a pro-government news website published an article identifying Aliyev as a “new name” in authorities’ investigations into a Western-controlled “network” of media outlets and NGOs paid to carry out “anti-national goals.” The article referred to criminal cases against independent outlets Abzas Media and Toplum TV, 10 of whose journalists were arrested and charged with currency smuggling in relation to their funding.
In a video filmed from Baku airport, Aliyev said that he tried to leave Azerbaijan for his safety after reading the article but was detained. He rejected the allegations against him as “fabricated.”
The following day, Baku’s Khatai District Court ordered that Aliyev be held in pretrial detention on currency smuggling charges.
Responding to a question about the journalist in late April, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, no relation, said at a news conference that media representatives "who illegally receive funding from abroad" had been arrested within the framework of the law.
Azerbaijani law bans foreign funding of the media, and requires government approval for foreign grants to civil society, which is rarely given.
Elgiz Gahramanli, a data analyst at Meclis.info, told CPJ that he believes authorities targeted Aliyev because Meclis.info highlighted parliamentarians’ errors and awkward statements.
In court, Aliyev alleged that police beat and electrocuted him during detention. News reports quoted his relatives as saying that he had bruises under his eyes and unspecified injuries on his body. A person familiar with the case, who spoke to CPJ on condition of anonymity, citing fear of reprisal, said police forced Aliyev to sign a document and to waive his right to a lawyer, and that police beat Aliyev again in retaliation for his allegations of mistreatment. Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs denied the allegations.
As of November 2024, Aliyev remains in pretrial custody. Gahramanli told CPJ that Aliyev is in good health, but that he has lost 15 kilograms (33 pounds) in detention.