Release student Bahruz Samadov, wrongfully imprisoned for over a year and a half

Scholars at Risk sent the below letter to Azerbaijani authorities, urging them to secure the immediate release of Mr. Bahruz Samadov on his 31st birthday. Take action by signing a letter here.

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Via email

The Honorable Ilham Aliyev
President of Azerbaijan
Office of the President of Azerbaijan
19 Istiqlaliyyat Street
Baku AZ1066, Azerbaijan

April 29, 2026

RE: Release wrongfully imprisoned PhD student Bahruz Samadov

Your Excellency:

I write on behalf of Scholars at Risk to respectfully urge you to secure the immediate release of Bahruz Samadov, a PhD student at Charles University in Prague, Czech Republic, and freelance journalist and researcher who has been wrongfully detained in Azerbaijan on charges of “high treason” in apparent retaliation for his research on military involvement in a regional conflict. Mr. Samadov has been in prison for over a year and a half.

Scholars at Risk (SAR) is an international network of more than 600 universities and colleges in over 40 countries dedicated to protecting the human rights of scholars around the world, and to raising awareness, understanding of, and respect for the principles of academic freedom and its constituent freedoms of expression, opinion, thought, association, and travel.

Bahruz Samadov is an Azerbaijani PhD student in the political science department at Charles University of Prague and a freelance political analyst. He is also a well-regarded researcher, having published articles across numerous platforms including OC Media, the Institute for War and Peace Reporting, Baku Research Institute, the Institute for International Political Studies, and the International Journal of Politics.

We understand that on the evening of August 21, 2024, Azerbaijani security forces entered Mr. Samadov’s grandmother’s house, where he was staying while on summer break from university, and arrested him. Police reportedly told Mr. Samadov’s grandmother that Mr. Samadov was suspected of engaging in illegal drug activities. On August 24, the Baku court updated Mr. Samadov’s charges to “high treason” and remanded him to four months of pretrial detention. The court alleged that Mr. Samadov had provided sensitive information to Armenia, an act that violated Article 274 of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code, which prohibits actions that jeopardize “the sovereignty, territorial integrity, state security or defensibility of the Azerbaijan Republic.” Human rights organizations suggest that these charges stem from Mr. Samadov’s research on the use of military forces in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict and academic connections with Armenian activists. On December 19, the Baku Sabail District Court extended Mr. Samadov’s pre-trial detention for an additional four months, and on January 22, 2025, the court denied his petition to be moved to house arrest. On June 23, a court in Baku sentenced Mr. Samadov to 15 years in prison in a closed-door hearing. 

In prison, Mr. Samadov continues to be subjected to pressures that have caused him to attempt suicide. He was recently kept in solitary confinement at Penitentiary No. 11. On December 1, 2025, the Binagadi District Court granted the request of the Penitentiary No. 11 administration to transfer Mr. Samadov to the Umbaki Penitentiary Complex, a maximum security prison. On January 31, 2026, Mr. Samadov warned that the decision to move him to Umbaki prison would jeopardize his life and deprive him of communication with his lawyer and grandmother, who has her own health issues and is unable to travel easily to visit him. On February 5,  Mr. Samadov’s appeal to the decision was rejected by the Baku Appellation Court. Immediately afterwards, he announced that he would begin an indefinite hunger strike. According to his grandmother, Mr. Samadov is also suffering from a skin disease. His requests to be transferred to a prison hospital have been denied. As of March 26, Mr. Samadov was held in solitary confinement and deprived of access to medication. Given Mr. Samadov’s precarious mental and physical health, we have serious concerns for his life. 

We welcome any additional information that may clarify our understanding of these events. Absent this, the facts appear to indicate that Mr. Samadov was arrested and charged as a result of his peaceful exercise of the rights to academic freedom and freedom of expression–conduct that is expressly protected by international human rights law and stipulated in a number of international human rights instruments including the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Azerbaijan is a party. Any charges for what we can only assume–absent clear public evidence from the state–to be nonviolent expressive conduct are unfounded. Detentions and prosecutions in connection to scholarly activity raise serious concerns about protection for free expression, academic freedom, and the higher education space in Azerbaijan. Furthermore, in the context of the recent peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia, Mr. Samadov’s conviction–for allegedly conducting research on the conflict–appears misaligned with Azerbaijan’s efforts to secure peace.

We therefore respectfully urge you to secure Mr. Samadov’s immediate and unconditional release, unless there is any credible evidence of a recognizable crime, in which case the case must proceed in a manner consistent with internationally recognized standards of due process, fair trial, and detention, in accordance with Azerbaijan’s obligations under international law, which includes access to family and the public disclosure of the circumstances of his detention, charges, and the evidence of any alleged crime.

We appreciate your attention to this important matter and look forward to your reply.

Sincerely,
Robert Quinn
Executive Director

CC:

Colonel-General Eyvazov Vilayat Süleymanoğlu
Minister of Internal Affairs

The Honorable Khazar Ibrahim
Ambassador of Azerbaijan to the United States

The Honorable Yashar Aliyev
Permanent Mission of Azerbaijan to the United Nations

The Honorable António Guterres
Secretary-General of the United Nations

The Honorable Volker Türk
High Commissioner for Human Rights

The Honorable Michael O’Flaherty
Commissioner for Human Rights of the Council of Europe

The Honorable Marco Rubio
Secretary of State
U.S. Department of State

The Honorable Andrea Bolaños Vargas
UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders