Anti-corruption campaigners are calling on the new government to secure the release of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, an LSE academic detained by the Azerbaijani authorities on what human rights groups claim are politically motivated charges. Dr Ibadoghlu was arrested on 23 July 2023.

Transparency International UK and Spotlight on Corruption have issued the call on the anniversary of Dr Ibadoghlu’s arrest urging an end to his continued detention in Azerbaijan.

Police arrested Dr Ibadoghlu under charges of tendering counterfeit money. His arrest and prosecution are widely seen as retaliation for his criticism of the Azerbaijani government as well as his political activities as chairman of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Movement.

Since his arrest in his family report that his health has deteriorated due to unsafe prison conditions and a lack of access to essential medication. The Ibadoghlu family also claim the Azerbaijani state has subjected them to harassment and intimidation over their continued opposition to Dr Ibadoghlu’s detention.

Ibad Bayramov, son of Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, said:

“As a family, the last 12 months has been an incredibly hard experience; my father is a very brave man, but a frail one too. And there have been times when we have wondered if we will see him alive again. I hope more than anything that we will.

“For the wider world, this past year has clearly shown that kleptocratic regimes cannot be trusted. They will seize any chance to consolidate their power by imprisoning advocates for transparency, like my father.

“Something that really hurts is the knowledge that many politicians across the so-called free world have been accepting generous hospitality from the corrupt regime in Azerbaijan for decades. When they do that, they tacitly support repression, corruption and authoritarianism. It is high time the UK took the lead and reevaluated its economic relationship with Azerbaijan – starting with some of its own parliamentarians.”

Duncan Hames, Director of Policy at Transparency International UK said:

“Azerbaijan is governed by a corrupt and repressive regime. Britain’s new Foreign Secretary has spoken passionately about the need to do more to tackle kleptocracy, so we hope he will use this opportunity to advocate for Dr Ibadoghlu’s immediate release. The UK should neither remain a bolthole for dirty money from Azerbaijan, nor look the other way when the human rights of those holding power to account are abused.”

The South Caucasian petrostate is assessed by experts for being one of the world’s most corrupt and repressive regimes, ruled by the same family since 1993. During this period, investigative journalists have found the Aliyev family and their associates have accumulated vast wealth beyond their legal known sources of income. Despite President Ilham Aliyev claiming these allegations are exaggerated, the UK National Crime Agency has been able prove that £9.6 million held by his cousin, Izzat Javadova, and senior MP Javanshir Feyziyev, were likely the proceeds of crime. They are also pursuing another £50 million worth of property bought by Mr Feyziyev in the courts, and another £22 million linked to the country’s former central banker, Jahangir Hajiyev. The Feyziyevs, Javadovs and Hajiyevs deny any wrongdoing.

The LSE Senior Visiting Fellow is just one of several journalists and activists detained in Azerbaijan recently as part of a government crackdown on those calling out high-level corruption and human rights abuses in the country.

Azerbaijan will host the next COP global climate change summit in their capital, Baku, between 11-22 November 2024.

ENDS

Notes to editors:

Dr. Ibadoghlu is a well-known academic and anti-corruption expert who has taught and conducted research on public finance management and good governance, most recently at the London School of Economics. He also has served as chairman of the Azerbaijan Democracy and Prosperity Movement, an organisation he has unsuccessfully tried to register as a political party since 2021. Previously, Dr. Ibadoghlu had led the Economic Research Center, an Azerbaijani nongovernmental organisation working on anti-corruption and budget transparency issues until the government effectively closed it in 2014. Shortly afterward, Dr. Ibadoghlu began living in exile. He had returned to Azerbaijan in July 2023 to visit his family.

Research by Transparency International UK has found dozens of UK MPs and Lords accepting all-expenses paid trips to the country worth hundreds of thousands of pounds, paid for by the regime. Currently, there is no legal restriction on foreign governments, like Azerbaijan’s, funding overseas visits by parliamentarians.