Nargiz Absalamova, a reporter for anti-corruption investigative outlet Abzas Media, has been detained since November 2023 on multiple financial crime charges in relation to alleged receipt of Western donor funding.
Absalamova 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.
On November 20, 2023, police in Azerbaijan’s capital, Baku, arrested Abzas Media director Ulvi Hasanli and project manager Mahammad Kekalov and searched the outlet’s offices, where they claimed to find 40,000 euros (US$43,770). Police arrested Abzas Media chief editor Sevinj Vagifgizi the following day. A court later ordered Hasanli, Kekalov, and Vagifgizi into pretrial detention on charges of conspiring to bring a large sum of money into the country unlawfully. Police also interrogated other Abzas Media employees, including Absalamova, reports said.
On November 30, officers at the Baku Police Department summoned Absalamova for a second round of questioning as a witness in the case against her colleagues and arrested her on the same currency smuggling charges, according to media reports.
On November 28, Azerbaijan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the U.S., German, and French envoys and accused their embassies and organizations registered in those countries of illegally funding Abzas Media. Reports in Azerbaijani state and pro-government media used materials that apparently had been leaked from authorities’ investigation into Abzas Media to accuse the outlet’s staff of illegally bringing undeclared grants from foreign donor organizations into the country.
In December 2023 and January 2024, authorities arrested Abzas Media journalists Hafiz Babali and Elnara Gasimova on the same charges.
Absalamova and her colleagues denied the charges. A statement issued by Abzas Media said the charges were retaliation by Aliyev for “a series of investigations into the corruption crimes committed by the president of the country and his appointed officials.”
In the months prior to the arrests, Abzas Media published series of investigations into the wealth of public figures such as the son-in-law and other family members of President Aliyev, the head of Azerbaijan’s state security service, and the country’s foreign minister.
Abzas Media is one of three major outlets – including Toplum TV and Kanal 13 – from among Azerbaijan’s last remaining independent media targeted over alleged receipt of Western donor money between late 2023 and December 1, 2024. The crackdown has been linked to a decline in Azerbaijani-Western relations.
Azerbaijani Minister of Internal Affairs Vilayat Eyvazov told CPJ by email on November 30 that any claims that charges against the outlet’s staff were related to their work were “completely groundless.”
In August 2024 authorities brought seven new economic crime charges against the Abzas journalists, including money laundering and tax evasion. The new charges increase the maximum prison sentence the journalists could face to up to 12 years.
As of late November 2024, Absalamova remains in detention at Baku Pretrial Detention Center, her lawyer Shahla Humbatova told CPJ. Absalamova is suffering from back pain from an injury she sustained during a protest for journalists’ rights two years earlier, but authorities are refusing to allow relatives to provide her with an orthopedic mattress, she said.
CPJ did not receive replies to emailed requests for comment from the Office of the President of Azerbaijan and the Penitentiary Service in late 2024.