Azerbaijan activist accuses state of hypocrisy over US agency funding

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 motivated.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has put more than $3bn (£2.4bn) into the country over the last 30 years," Alpay told the court. "The Ministry of Justice received $17m, and the Prosecutor General's Office received $10m."

But now, we have been arrested under a criminal case related to USAID," Alpay added. "This is a completely absurd approach."

The activist is one of several civil society figures detained in Azerbaijan as part of a wide-ranging criminal investigation into independent non-governmental organisations (NGOs).

Prosecutors allege that Alpay failed to register foreign grants with the Ministry of Justice, rendering his group's financial activities illegal.

Alpay argued in court that his group had repeatedly applied for official registration but was rejected on every occasion by the ministry. Under Azerbaijani law, unregistered public associations are not prohibited from operating.

Several other prominent civil society figures remain in custody under the same investigation, including Bashir Suleymanli, the head of the Civil Rights Institute. In March, social activist Zamin Zaki was sentenced to seven years and six months in prison under similar charges.

Independent media outlets and civil society groups in Azerbaijan have faced a renewed wave of arrests since November 2023. State-aligned media platforms have frequently run reports accusing independent activists of acting as foreign "agents".

Following the crackdown, the operations of USAID in the country were brought to an end. In August 2025, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced the formal termination of USAID's activities in Azerbaijan, after Baku declared that the agency's presence was no longer legally justified.

None of the Azerbaijani government departments named in Alpay's court testimony have commented on his statements.

The trial is scheduled to resume on 2 July, when Alpay is expected to continue his testimony.