Jailed Azerbaijan opposition leader says prison phone calls banned

Ali Karimli

The jailed leader of Azerbaijan’s main opposition party says prison authorities have banned him from calling his family after he gave interviews criticising the government to international media.

Ali Karimli, the head of the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party (AXCP), made the allegations during an appeal court hearing in Baku on 16 June.

His family and party colleagues said he has been denied his twice-weekly phone call rights consecutively.

Although my detention conditions have been harsh from the beginning, they have made them even more difficult after my interview with France 24," Karimli said in a statement shared by his party.

The denial of telephone contact with my family is also related to the articles I have dictated," he added, accusing Azerbaijani authorities of trying to silence his writing.

The State Security Service (DTX) did not respond to requests for comment on the allegations.

During his recent interview with the French broadcaster France 24, Karimli described himself as a prisoner of conscience and argued that political repression in Azerbaijan had escalated.

Karimli has been held in detention since 29 November last year alongside AXCP assembly secretary Mammad Ibrahim.

Both men face charges of attempting to forcibly change the country's constitutional order, which they deny as politically motivated.

On 10 June, a Baku court extended Karimli’s pre-trial detention by another five months, a decision which was upheld by the Court of Appeal.

The arrests are officially linked to a wider coup investigation involving Ramiz Mehdiyev, the former head of the Presidential Administration.

Government-aligned media have accused Mehdiyev, who is currently under house arrest on treason charges, of plotting a transition government with Russian backing.

Karimli has dismissed any association with Mehdiyev as "completely groundless", while international human rights organisations have condemned the prosecutions as part of a sweeping crackdown on dissent.