Abzas Media Journalists Transferred to Remote Colony

The convicted Abzas Media journalists, Sevinj Vagifgizi, Nargiz Absalamova, and Elnara Gasimova, have been transferred from the Baku Pre-trial Detention Center to a penitentiary complex located in the village of Gurumba, in southern Azerbaijan, 250 km from the capital, Baku. Their relatives reported this information.

According to their families, the women were only informed at 9:00 AM that they were being moved and were given just one hour to pack. They did not know their destination until they reached Lankaran.

The journalists view their transfer to the remote colony as a form of political pressure and an attempt to maximize their isolation from the outside world.

The relocation of the convicted individuals to a distant colony also creates significant difficulties for their relatives and lawyers.

According to lawyer Fariz Namazli, the case law of the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) establishes that "serving a prison sentence should not be a means of severing the convict from their family."

"On the contrary," the lawyer wrote on Facebook, "the state's task is to preserve the convict's family and social ties and support their rehabilitation. The ECHR determines that sending a prisoner to an institution far from their place of residence, where their family cannot visit them, is not simply an 'ordinary burden of prison life,' but constitutes an interference with family life and may represent a violation of Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights. While a distance of 300 km may seem insignificant at first glance, if one does not consider the real capabilities of the family—their financial situation, lack of personal transportation, health status, and other factors—this distance can become an obstacle that severs family ties. Otherwise, a practice emerges that, on one hand, 'punishes the family,' and on the other, leads to the complete isolation of the prisoner from society. This is unfair and does not comply with the spirit of the European Convention."

The other defendants in this case—Ulvi Hasanli, Farid Mehralizade, Hafiz Babali, and Mohammed Kekalov—had already been transferred to the Umbakı penitentiary complex, known for its harsh conditions, after the initial verdict from the court of first instance.

Five employees of the online publication Abzas Media, including Director Ulvi Hasanli, Editor-in-Chief Sevinj Vagifgizi, translator Mohammed Kekalov, reporters Nargiz Absalamova and Elnara Gasimova, as well as the head of the economic department of Turan Information Agency, investigative journalist Hafiz Babali, were arrested between November 2023 and January 2024 on charges of foreign currency smuggling. Subsequently, Farid Mehralizade, an economic observer for Radio Azadlig, was also arrested in connection with the case.

Following the preliminary investigation in August 2024, the defendants were charged under six additional articles of the Criminal Code of Azerbaijan.

They rejected the accusations, stating that they were being persecuted for their journalistic investigations.

On June 20, 2025, the court sentenced the journalists and staff of the Azerbaijani online publication Abzas Media to lengthy prison terms. The publication's Director Ulvi Hasanli, Editor-in-Chief Sevinj Vagifgizi, investigative journalist Hafiz Babali, and economist Farid Mehralizade each received 9 years in prison; Nargiz Absalamova and Elnara Gasimova received 9 years each; and Mohammed Kekalov received 7.5 years. The Baku Court of Appeal upheld the verdict on September 8.

The Abzas Media case marked the beginning of a series of arrests of independent media journalists in Azerbaijan starting in November 2023. Several criminal cases, including the collective arrests of employees from independent online resources like Toplum TV and Meydan TV, were initiated under a similar scenario.