No Critic Is Beyond Reach: Emin Huseynov Sounds Alarm on Azerbaijan’s Transnational Repression at PACE

“Strasbourg, January 2026 — Emin Huseynov, Azerbaijani human rights defender and Director of the Institute for Human Rights (IHR), sounded the alarm on Azerbaijan’s expanding campaign of transnational repression during a side event titled “Understanding Transnational Repression: Risks, Patterns and Implications for Europe’s Democratic Space and Its Most Vulnerable Democracies”, held on the margins of the Winter 2026 Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE).

In his speech, Huseynov stated that Azerbaijan has completely dismantled freedom of expression, assembly, and political pluralism. All independent journalists, media workers, activists, human rights defenders, and NGO leaders are imprisoned, while the opposition has been eradicated and its leader, Ali Keremli, remains in detention. The number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan now exceeds 400.

Huseynov stressed that repression no longer stops at Azerbaijan’s borders. Since March 2025, the Office of the Prosecutor General of Azerbaijan has launched a large-scale campaign of criminal prosecutions in absentia against critics living abroad. At least 24 high-profile human rights defenders, journalists, scholars, and activists in exile have been targeted through politically motivated criminal cases.

Those targeted include lawyers and civil society leaders such as Subhan Hasanli and Aytaj Aghazade for their human rights work and access to international funding; scholars and analysts Altay Goyushov and Arastun Orujlu for their intellectual and academic criticism; and journalists and media figures such as Sevinj Osmangizi and Ganimat Zayidov for providing independent information to Azerbaijani audiences.

The list further includes bloggers and activists Tural Sadigli, Gurban Mammadov, Elshad Mammadov, Suleyman Suleymanli, Orkhan Aghayev, Imamaddin Alimanov, Rafael Piriyev, Ordukhan Temirkhan, Abid Gafarov, Vagif Allahverdi, Beydulla Manafov, Murad Guliyev, and Manaf Jalilzade. Even former officials and entrepreneurs — Elshad Abdullayev, Arif Mammadov, and Ilgar Hajiyev — have been targeted for whistleblowing and exposing corruption. Many of those listed have already been convicted and sentenced in absentia to lengthy prison terms.

Huseynov emphasised that this repression has turned deadly within Europe itself. In France, Azerbaijani activist Mahammad Mirzali has survived multiple assassination attempts and now lives under 24/7 police protection. In an even more tragic case, political activist Vidadi Iskandeli was brutally murdered in his own home in France in 2024, suffering more than 20 stab wounds. Huseynov stressed that these acts are not isolated crimes but constitute a clear message from Baku that no critic is beyond reach.

He also raised urgent concern over credible death threats directed at his brother, investigative journalist and activist Mehman Huseynov, following the publication of his most recent investigation into the Aliyev family. According to Emin Huseynov, these threats have been accompanied by a coordinated defamation campaign launched by Azerbaijani state media against both Mehman Huseynov and himself. He warned that this escalation represents an imminent threat to life and constitutes a violation of Article 2 of the European Convention on Human Rights — the right to life — by a Council of Europe member state.

The speech further highlighted the involvement of other countries in enabling Azerbaijan’s transnational repression. Turkey continues to cooperate with Azerbaijani authorities, with Gultakin Gadzhibeyli currently facing an urgent threat of extradition. Huseynov recalled that Turkey previously extradited journalist Rauf Mirgadirov in 2014. In Ukraine, bloggers Elvin Isayev and Maksud Mahmudov were handed over to Azerbaijan and are now detained under conditions amounting to torture.

Huseynov also detailed the long-term persecution of human rights defender Avtandil Mammadov. After facing repression in Azerbaijan, Mammadov sought asylum in Georgia in 2017. Despite this, Azerbaijan placed him on an Interpol wanted list in 2018, and in 2019 he was arrested in Georgia following an extradition request from Baku. He continues to face surveillance and persecution in Georgia, which has failed to grant him asylum for nine years.

The case of Azerbaijani blogger Huseyn Bakikhanov, who sought refuge in Georgia and was killed in Tbilisi on 14 July 2021, was also raised. Huseynov noted attempts to conceal the circumstances of Bakikhanov’s death and recalled that Avtandil Mammadov had previously exposed the causes of the death of activist Vugar Rzayev in Belgium.

Huseynov reminded participants that in 2021 alone, three Azerbaijani activists were killed abroad under similar circumstances. Vugar Rzayev was found dead in a river in Belgium after 15 days; Bayram Mammadov was found dead in the sea in Turkey after 14 days; and Huseyn Bakikhanov was found dead in Tbilisi after 15 days. In all three cases, information about the deaths was withheld for weeks, raising serious concerns about transnational violence and cover-ups.

Concluding his remarks, Emin Huseynov stated that activists in exile continue to face physical surveillance, digital spyware attacks, and constant intimidation — even in diplomatic centres such as Strasbourg and Geneva. He warned that current international protection mechanisms are failing, as host states often treat such cases as isolated criminal incidents rather than state-sponsored repression. Huseynov called on Council of Europe member states to stop allowing “pragmatic” political considerations to override human rights and to recognise transnational repression as a direct threat to Europe’s democratic space.