IHR

Mammad Alpay A detained Azerbaijani activist has told a court that state bodies received millions of dollars from the US aid agency now linked to his criminal prosecution. Mammad Alpay, head of the Election Monitoring Alliance, spoke on Thursday at the Baku Grave Crimes Court, where he is on trial on charges including embezzlement and tax evasion. Alpay, who has been held in pre-trial detention for 15 months, denies all the charges against him and says the prosecution is politically...

Zamin Salayev An Azerbaijani opposition activist has been placed in a punishment cell after protesting against the lack of air conditioning in his prison during hot weather, his family says. Zamin Salayev, who heads the Salyan regional branch of the opposition Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (AXCP), was moved to the disciplinary cell at Prison No. 11, his relatives said. According to his family, Salayev had demanded that the prison administration replace old, ineffective fans with air...

Ramiz Mehdiyev Family businesses linked to Azerbaijan's former "grey cardinal" Ramiz Mehdiyev have continued to secure non-competitive state contracts, despite him being under house arrest on treason charges. Recent public procurement records show that Caspian Telecom LLC and printing giant Sharq-Garb ASC, both heavily linked to the Mehdiyev family, secured multiple state contracts and generated millions in revenue over the past year. Mehdiyev, aged 88, was placed under house arrest in...