Image created by Arzu Geybullayeva

Over this past summer, authorities in Azerbaijan arrested two young scholars, accusing them of treason. Igbal Abilov and Bahruz Samadov were both accused of treason and sentenced to months in detention. But what constitutes treason according to local legislation and is it being used fairly in Azerbaijan? The answer is in the details of the legislation and its implementation according to the lawyers.

The cases of Igbal Abilov and Bahruz Samadov

Before his arrest on August 21, 2024, Bahruz Samadov, was pursuing a PhD degree at Charles University in the Czech Republic. He was visiting his grandmother in Baku and was scheduled to leave for Prague the following week but police arrested Samadov outside his grand mother's home, and took him to the State Security Service. Two days later, a court in Baku handed Samadov a four-month pretrial detention on charges of treason. Samadov stands accused of conspiring against the state by communicating with Armenian nationals on WhatsApp. Samadov denies the charges.

In addition to his academic work at Charles University, Samadov has penned a series of opinion pieces on Azerbaijan for various international and regional media over the recent years. He was also among the community of peace activists who strongly opposed the Second Karabakh War in 2020, for which he and others were targeted.

In addition to Samadov, police also arrested and sentenced Igbal Abilov, who researches ethnic minorities and lives in Belarus, to four months in pre-trial detention in July 2024. Abilov was also charged with treason, as well as making calls against the state based on orders of foreign actors, and inciting national, racial, social, or religious hatred and enmity.

Shortly after Samadov's arrest, another peace activist Samad Shikhi was detained at the airport and prevented from leaving the country. He was then questioned as a witness in an investigation launched against Samadov. The most recent airport detention also includes Cavid Agha, an independent researcher who was leaving the country to pursue his studies.

A history of treason charges used to silence critics

In 2007, journalist Nvoruzali Mamedov was initially arrested on bogus drug charges, but later accused of committing treason. He was sentenced to ten years behind bars, where he died in 2009. In 2012, Hilal Mammadov was arrested on treason charges. Mammadov was a journalist and editor of a Talysh newspaper “Tolisi Sado” (The Voice of Talysh). He was sentenced to five years in prison in 2013. A year later, during Azerbaijani government's crackdown targeting civil society representatives, a couple, Leyla and Arif Yunus, were arrested on treason charges. Journalist Rauf Mirkadirov, faced similar charges after his arrest in 2014 as well. In November 2020, court in Baku sentenced journalist Polad Aslanov to 16 years imprisonment on treason charges. In February 2022, his sentence was reduced to 13 years. In 2017, at least three citizens were arrested on treason charges. In October 2024, Mirhafiz Jafarzade, an ethnic Talysh holding Russian citizenship, was sentenced to 16 years behind bars also on treason charges. Jafarzade was arrested in November 2022. Abilov and Samadov, are most recent names, targeted on treason grounds.

What does the legislation say?

According to Article 274 (high treason) of the Criminal Code:

High treason, that is to say a deliberate act committed by a citizen of the Republic of Azerbaijan to the detriment of the Republic of Azerbaijan’s sovereignty, territorial inviolability, state security or defense capacity: [namely] joining the enemy; espionage; the transfer of state secret to a foreign state; [or] providing assistance to a foreign state, organization or their representatives by carrying out hostile activity against the Republic of Azerbaijan, is punishable by deprivation of liberty for a period of twelve to twenty years, or life imprisonment.

In the case of Bahruz Samadov, according to lawyer Samed Rahimli, the State Security Service (also known as the National Security Agency) accused the scholar of treason on the grounds that he committed espionage in an indirect way, meaning, he was acting on instructions of Armenian special services by providing miscellaneous information, that was damaging the national security; and that he aided and abetted the adversarial actions of Armenian special services by inciting ethnic and national hatred through his publications under their instructions.

The State Security Service used Samadov's private communication with at least two Armenian activists in which the scholar shared publicly available information on the reconstruction projects of formerly occupied territories among other things, as evidence for espionage. The State Security Service also alleged that Samadov’s anti-war publications, and his op-eds against Azerbaijan government's official narrative on various issues, including the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, were evidence for his aiding and abetting Armenian state security.

As such, the State Security Service perceived Armenian activists with whom Samadov communicated as official representatives of Armenian special services, and their exchanges as instructions, in the absence of any substantial evidence.

Rahimli, who is familiar with the case, said that private communication cited in the case, as evidence, does not prove that Samadov committed espionage in light of the information he shared being publicly available. As such, it cannot be categorized as a breach of national security by virtue of law and is therefore unreasonable. In addition, Rahimli pointed out that the meaning of indirect espionage — delivery of miscellaneous information, damaging to national security — is vague, and there is no existing case law clarifying its meaning. All of this to say, the treason charges leveled against Samadov, were unlawful and inadmissible.

Similarly, in the case of Igbal Abilov who, in addition to being accused of treason is also accused of making public calls to violence against the state and incitement to national, racial, social, or religious hatred and enmity, there is no evidence proving these crimes. The State Security Service claim Abilov was acting on instructions from officials at the Talysh Studies Center at the Yerevan State University (which the security service of Azerbaijan also considers as indirect representatives/officials of the Armenia Special Services) and the former or current leadership of the unrecognized Talysh government-in-exile. And as such, the security services are referring to Abilov's private communication with the officials and his publications on the internet, including his social media posts, as proof. According to Samed Rahimov this private communication does not prove that Abilov committed treason and related charges, because in his capacity as an academic, researching ethnic minority issues, Abilov's communication with the Talysh Studies Center and the exiled group does not prove he was acting on their instructions.

In both Abilov and Samadov's cases, the two men were forced to give out their passwords under duress to their devices.

According to Rahimli there are far greater implications of treason charges leveled against Samadov and Abilov.

In addition to severe and negative consequences for the two scholars (they are facing a minimum sentence of 12 years), the charges have a chilling effect on the entire anti-war movement and ethnic minority activists but also broadly speaking on an entire civic space.

The travel bans imposed on Shikhi and Agha, following Samadov's arrest, attest to this. And these are not isolated bans as local rights defenders estimate the number of travel bans as higher than the numbers publicly known.