The Number of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan Has Reached 392

On October 7, the Union "For the Freedom of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan" published a new list of political prisoners in Azerbaijan, including 392 names. The list was compiled by the Union's co-coordinators: Leyla Yunus, Director of the Institute for Peace and Democracy, and Elshan Hasanov, Head of the Political Prisoners Monitoring Center.

Compared to the previous update in June of this year, the number of political prisoners has increased by 17, rising from 375 to 392.

Specifically, two people were added to the "Journalists and bloggers" category: freelance journalist Anar Abdulla and the head of the YouTube channel "Kanal21.az," Ilham Nasibov.

Anar Abdulla was implicated in the case of human rights defender Anar Mammadli and is accused of economic crimes. Ilham Nasibov was accused of "extortion," although he was engaged in covering social problems of the population and corruption among local officials, and he disseminated a video of a protest action by residents of Arab Gobustan village against water shortages.

In the "Human rights defender" group, the new political prisoner is Fikrat Jafarli, head of the Center for Investigation of Torture, who was sentenced to 4 months of imprisonment after criticizing the methods of the Bar Association's activities.

Additionally, six more people were added to the list in the "Arrested in the Imishli Case" category. In total, 19 people were arrested following the high-profile road accident caused by a police car driver in Imishli, which resulted in the death of children and consequently sparked unrest among local residents.

Another eight new political prisoners were added to the largest category of political prisoners: "Believers."

A "novelty" in this category was the arrest of six religious women. They were arrested on charges of hooliganism and disturbing public order for distributing ehsan (treats) on the mournful day of Ashura, which was interpreted as an "unsanctioned protest action."

Currently, besides the six religious women, nine female journalists are also imprisoned. This brings the total number of imprisoned women political prisoners to 15 (as explicitly detailed in the source's breakdown).

The 392 political prisoners are divided into 12 groups in the list, including:

• "Journalists and bloggers" - 31 people

• "Human rights defenders" - 7

• "Members of opposition parties and civil society representatives" - 39

• "Activists of national minorities" - 5

• "Anti-war activists" - 2

• "Arrested over the Soyudlu events" - 2

• "Political emigrants deported from Germany" - 5

• "Believers" - 249

• "Convicted in the Terter case" - 8

• "Convicted in the Ganja case" - 13

• "Life prisoners" - 12

• "Arrested over the Imishli case" - 19

The Azerbaijani authorities deny the presence of political prisoners in the country and assert that the individuals recognized as such by human rights defenders were convicted for specific crimes.