Activist Akhmed Mamedli banned leaving Azerbaijan

Azeri border guards prevented Akhmed Mamedli, an activist, from leaving the country, detaining him at the Baku Airport. They cited the ban issued by the country’s General Prosecutor's Office (GPO), and the activist has claimed the ban was unjustified.

"My wife and I were planning to fly to Tbilisi. We had already passed all the checks, and in the end we were detained at border control," Mamedli has explained.

According to his story, he was not allowed to leave the country for the first time in September 2022. "Then I was detained by the police when I was going to buy a plane ticket to leave for studying in Turkey. This followed after I criticized in social networks the military escalation on the Azeri-Armenia border ... At the same time, I was accused of providing a "fake document" on admission to a master's degree course at a Turkish university. In November 2022, a criminal case was opened under the article of ‘Document Forgery’ ... Because of this, in December 2022, I was again not allowed to leave the country," Akhmed Mamedli has continued.

However, according to his version, the claims of the mobilization and conscription state service against him have now been withdrawn.

Elchin Sadygov, an advocate, believes that Mamedli is unreasonably not allowed to leave the country.

"No official charges have been brought. On the other hand, he has already been issued a military ID, and all the claims of the state mobilization and conscription service have been removed. Besides, the statute of limitations for the article ‘Document forgery’ is two years, and this time has expired," Mr Sadygov has noted.

In Azerbaijan, travel bans for activists and journalists have become more frequent. Thus, Ulviya Ali, a journalist, was interrogated on January 16 within the “Meydan” TV case, after which she was banned from leaving Azerbaijan. According to Emin Guseinov, Director of the Institute for Reporters' Freedom and Safety (IRFS), dozens of journalists and activists interrogated within the “Toplum” TV and “Abzas” Media cases have been banned from leaving the country.