“The Regime is Taking Revenge”: The Persecution of Rufat Safarov

Rufat Safarov

Rufat Safarov, one of Azerbaijan’s most recognizable human rights defenders, is back in the spotlight—this time fighting for his freedom in the Baku Court of Grave Crimes. Safarov’s been held since December 2024. He says the charges against him don’t even try to hide what they are: pure political payback for his work exposing injustices under the Aliyev government.

The state’s case leans heavily on the testimony of Natiq Imanguliyev, a man who insists Safarov cheated him out of 60,000 AZN in a shady land deal and then attacked him in a garage. But when Safarov’s lawyer, Rovshana Rahimli, started asking questions, Imanguliyev couldn’t back up his story. No receipts. No contracts. Not even a witness. When pressed, all he could say was that he’d been “too excited” about buying the land to bother with paperwork.

Things get stranger with the details of Safarov’s arrest. Imanguliyev claims the police just happened to show up right as the dispute turned physical—apparently, they were “buying water” nearby and then somehow popped into a private garage at the perfect moment. No one’s managed to explain how or why they wound up there. Safarov calls the whole scenario a set-up. He says he didn’t even know Imanguliyev before that day. The attack happened in his own garage, and police stormed in immediately after, like it had all been arranged.

The timing of Safarov’s detention stings. He was taken into custody days before flying to Washington, D.C. for an award from the U.S. State Department—on International Human Rights Day, no less. In a quiet but telling protest, Antony Blinken placed the award on an empty chair. Safarov’s absence wasn’t just noticed; it became a symbol for countless silenced voices in Azerbaijan.

In court, Safarov sounded tired but resolute. He said he expects nothing from the courts—he sees them as tools of the state, not instruments of justice. Still, he used his moment to urge the U.S. State Department, the EU, and the Council of Europe not to look away. He’s been cut off from his work at “Line of Defense” and sees this whole case as a calculated move to muzzle him—someone who once worked as a prosecutor and knows how the system really works.

This isn’t Safarov’s first clash with the regime. He made headlines back in 2015 when he quit his job at the Zardab District Prosecutor’s Office in protest. Later, he did years behind bars on a nine-year sentence, only to be pardoned in 2019. Now, as his trial resumes on May 4, his story stands as another sharp reminder of Azerbaijan’s crackdown on civil liberties—even though officials keep insisting, with a straight face, that there are no political prisoners.