The authoritarian regime of Azerbaijan's president, Ilham Aliyev, is tightening control over information just a few weeks before the opening of COP29, which runs from November 11 to 22 in Baku. At least 20 journalists, as well as human rights defenders, union leaders, lawyers, and environmental activists, have been imprisoned in recent months in this country where oil and gas account for 92% of exports. Known for declaring that oil "is a gift from God," President Aliyev is increasingly inclined to send those who think otherwise into the regime's purgatory.

The NGOs Freedom Now (FN) and Human Rights Watch (HRW) have identified 33 Azerbaijani public figures targeted for criminal prosecution, 30 of whom are already behind bars. In a joint report published on October 8 entitled "We Try to Stay Invisible: Azerbaijan's Escalating Crackdown on Critics and Civil Society," the two NGOs state that the list was compiled based on interviews conducted over the past 14 months with some 40 sources, mainly lawyers, journalists and relatives of the detainees.

The HRW and FN are calling on the Baku authorities to "unconditionally release political and civic activists, journalists, and others held on politically motivated charges and end the use of trumped-up or spurious criminal charges to prosecute government critics."

They also refer to the government's "arbitrary application of laws and regulations governing NGOs," which are "so burdensome and create such a significant interference with the right to freedom of association as to be unjustified and constitute a violation of that right." Twenty of the 33 cases are accused of "currency smuggling," which now seems to be the legal procedure preferred by the repressive apparatus.

This is particularly the case for veteran human rights defender Anar Mammadli, 46, who co-founded an environmental advocacy group just weeks before his arrest. He now faces an eight-year prison sentence. Also among those imprisoned is Gubad Ibadoghlu, 53, a research fellow at the London School of Economics known for his expertise in the transparency of financial flows from hydrocarbons. In frail health, he was transferred after nine months in preventive detention to house arrest, awaiting trial. According to HRW and FN, he is "wrongly" accused of "counterfeiting" and "extremism," and faces a possible 17-year prison sentence.

The 20 journalists persecuted by the courts work mainly for two of Azerbaijan's last independent online media, Abzas Media and Toplum TV. Eighteen of them are currently in detention centers, while the remaining two are under house arrest. All face the threat of heavy prison sentences.

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