▲Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Sadigov being detained by Georgian police in Tbilisi. Screengrab via social media.
Georgian authorities have detained Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Sadigov and have scheduled a hearing for his extradition.
Sadigov, the head of the independent Azerbaijani news outlet and YouTube channel Azel.TV, was detained on Saturday, less than a month after he was barred from leaving Georgia unless he travels to Azerbaijan.
Sadigov had been living in Georgia with his family since December 2023.
His wife, Sevinj Sadigova, posted footage of him being escorted into a car by law enforcement officers.
She told OC Media that Sadigov had been followed by unknown people when they lived in Marneuli. The Sadigovs moved to Tbilisi after border guards refused to allow Sadigov board a plane to Antalya on 17 July.
She believes that Sadigov was detained on the orders of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, and that her husband will be detained should he be extradited to Azerbaijan.
Dmitry Nozadze, a lawyer from Rights Georgia, told OC Media that Baku requested Sadigov’s extradition in July, and that he was accused of fraud or extortion in Azerbaijan.
His wife, Sadigova, has dismissed the accusations levelled against her husband as ‘absurd’.
As news broke of Sadigov’s detention, several Georgian journalists held a protest outside Georgia’s Interior Ministry building, along with Sadigov’s wife and two children.
Sevinj Sadigova, Afgan Sadigova’s wife, speaking to police in front of the Georgian Interior Ministry, where several Georgian journalists have come out in support of the detained journalist. Mariam Nikuradze/OC Media.
‘We did not feel safe’
Nozadze said that the Georgian authorities had scheduled an extradition trial for Sadigov on Sunday, adding that the trial could ‘drag on for about three months’.
In 2016, Sadigov was sentenced to two and a half years in prison on charges of aggravated assault, with the sentence later reduced by a year.
He was later arrested in 2019 and sentenced to seven years in prison on charges of extortion. The sentence was reduced to four years after a presidential pardon in May 2022.
In late July, Sadigov told OC Media that he had made the decision to move to Georgia because he and his family did not feel safe in Azerbaijan.
‘Living in Georgia was not easy for me, because here, at the same time, I felt someone following me, and many times I received threatening messages’, said Sadigov.
Azerbaijan’s government has been cracking down on independent media in the country since November 2023, with at least 10 journalists currently remaining imprisoned, in what is recognised by international rights and media organisations as political persecution.
Over the past few years, many Azerbaijani journalists have chosen to live and work in exile for fear of persecution in Azerbaijan. However, concerns have long been mounting about how safe they are in Georgia.
Such concerns became particularly acute after an Azerbaijani journalist, Afghan Mukhtarli, who was based in Tbilisi, was kidnapped and delivered to Azerbaijan in 2017, allegedly by the Georgian authorities.
Aytan is an accomplished journalist with extensive experience of working with Azerbaijani, regional, and international media outlets and organisations. Formerly associated with Meydan TV, a prominent
Detained Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Sadigov has been transferred to a prison hospital in Georgia on his 17th day of hunger strike.
Sadigov has been in extradition custody in Gldani prison in Tbilisi since 4 August.
Sadigova told Netgazeti on Tuesday that she was informed about her husband’s transfer to the hospital late Monday night.
‘I asked [to] talk to my husband, so I could hear his voice’, she said, adding that she was denied permission. ‘They called me late at night, but I don’
A demonstration was held in front of the Government Chancellery of Georgia in support of Afgan Sadigov, an Azerbaijani journalist who has been detained in Georgia while awaiting a court decision regarding extradition to Azerbaijan.
On Tuesday, around two dozen local journalists and activists, together with Afgan Sadigov’s wife and two children, gathered to show solidarity and demand Sadigov’s release.
Sadigov, the head of the Azerbaijani news outlet and YouTube channel Azel.TV, was originall
An independent Azerbaijani journalist has alleged that the Georgian authorities have barred him from leaving the country, unless he travels to Azerbaijan.
Afgan Sadigov, the head of the independent Azerbaijani news outlet and YouTube channel Azel.TV, claimed on 17 July that Georgian border guards prevented him and his family from flying from Tbilisi to Antalya. According to Sadigov, he was told he could only return to Azerbaijan.
‘I couldn’t leave Georgia for a third country. I have two
Two editors of media outlets in Azerbaijan have been arrested and charged with extortion.
Afghan Sadigov, an editor at news site Azel TV, and Sakit Muradov, the editor-in-chief of news site Xeberfakt, were arrested in Baku on 13 May.
According to the Prosecutor General’s Office, the two men were arrested by the General Directorate for Combating Corruption while receiving a ₼10,000 ($6,000) bribe.
The Prosecutor General said the two met with officials from the Sumgayit City Executive Power
