Azerbaijani democracy activist Ramil Babayev has spent his 29th birthday in custody, more than two years after his arrest in a controversial crackdown on independent media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Babayev, an employee of the Baku-based Institute for Democratic Initiatives (IDI), was detained on 6 March 2024 when police raided the offices of online broadcaster Toplum TV.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite the passage of more than two years, the trial against him and his co-defendants has still not concluded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
During his detention at the Baku Investigative Detention Centre, Babayev has repeatedly raised concerns over poor prison conditions, including unsanitary facilities and the alleged physical abuse of inmates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He recently ended two hunger strikes, which lasted a total of 17 days over a three-month period, to protest against his treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His demands included an end to discrimination and torture within the facility, improved sanitation in punishment cells, and the right to unmonitored family visits for those classified as political prisoners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
He also went on strike to demand urgent medical treatment for Alesger Mammadli, the co-founder of Toplum TV, who was arrested under the same case and remains in custody.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a statement announcing the end of his hunger strike, Babayev said some of his demands had now been met by prison authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
“At this stage, the only effective way to fight violence is for the victims of violence to know their rights and voice their protests,” he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Babayev has consistently rejected the charges against him during court appearances, describing the prosecution as a politically motivated attempt to silence independent voices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A total of 10 people have been charged in connection with the Toplum TV investigation. The defendants were initially accused of smuggling, but prosecutors later upgraded the indictments to include more severe currency and financial offences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Azerbaijani authorities have previously denied accusations of political persecution, maintaining that the country’s judiciary operates independently.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Azerbaijani democracy activist Ramil Babayev has spent his 29th birthday in custody, more than two years after his arrest in a controversial crackdown on independent media. Babayev, an employee of the Baku-based Institute for Democratic Initiatives (IDI), was detained on 6 March 2024 when police raided the offices of online broadcaster Toplum TV. Despite the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":31437,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[1047],"class_list":["post-31655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-feed","tag-editor"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31657,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31655\/revisions\/31657"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31437"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.irfs.org\/az\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}