TRANSCRIPT
"I am writing from a windowless, smelly, humid, dump and sultry cell overfilled with insects, cockroaches. Conditions in the detention facilities are atrocious, cells are crowded with mostly innocent people, including more than 200 political prisoners. I am one of them."
It's been over a year since the arrest of Azerbaijani academic Dr Gubad Ibadoghlu, an outspoken anti-corruption researcher and vocal critic of the government.
On July 23rd last year, Dr Ibadoghlu and his wife were on their way to meet youth democracy activists when their vehicle was surrounded by four unmarked cars.
After ramming into the back of their vehicle, 20 plain clothes officers then forced the couple from their car, before beating them and forcing them into separate cars.
According to the Azeri authorities, the arrest was part of an operation against a terrorist organisation and he was charged with producing and selling counterfeit money.
Denied medical assistance, his type 2 diabetes and hypertension worsened in prison and his health deteriorated rapidly.
His daughter, Jala Bayramova, says it has been almost impossible to send or receive correspondence from her father while he is in the Baku Detention Facility.
In March of this year, his lawyers managed to get a letter through security.
Jala Bayramova read it to the Euronest Parliamentary Assembly.
"I have been an outspoken critic of the systemic corruption surrounding Azerbaijan’s ruling elite. Azerbaijani authorities misused the criminal justice system to target me for my peaceful criticism and dissidence. My dreadful jail situation is putting my life at risk. Therefore, only urgent action is required to save my life in prison. Otherwise it will be too late, most probably I will be the next victim after Navalny."
With his work primarily focused on exposing corruption within Azerbaijan's government, and its almost sole reliance on fossil fuel revenues, both his family and human rights groups believe his trial is being delayed until after Azerbaijan hosts this years COP-29 Climate summit.
In Azerbaijan's neighbouring Georgia, human rights expert Giorgi Gogia knows the situation all too well.
The Human Rights Watch associate director of the Europe and Central Asia Division has spent decades covering human rights abuses in the region.
He says while Azerbaijan's human rights record has been abysmal for over a decade now, it has significantly worsened since November last year, shortly after the country was announced as the host of COP29.
"And for the past year or so, we have seen the further escalation, at least 20 journalists from remaining three independent online media outlets - we're not talking about broadcast media, online media outlets - have been arrested in the past few months or otherwise face criminal prosecutions. They've arrested some really outspoken NGO or other activists. One of them, as you well know, is Dr. Gubad Ibadoghlu."
In an interview with the BBC's senior international correspondent Orla Guerin in 2020, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev categorically rejected claims that Azerbaijan does not have a free media.
ALIYEV: "Why do you think that people in Azerbaijan do not have free media and opposition?"
GUERIN: "Because this is what I am told by independent sources in this country."
ALIYEV: "Which independent sources?"
GUERIN: "Many independent sources."
ALIYEV: Tell me which."
GUERIN: "I certainly couldn’t name sources."
ALIYEV: "Oh, if you couldn’t name that means you are just inventing the stories."
GUERIN: "So, you are saying that the media is not under a state control."
ALIYEV: "Not at all."
GUERIN: "And there is a vibrant free opposition media."
ALIYEV: "Of Course."
GUERIN: "Where do I see this?"
ALIYEV: "You can see it on the internet. You can see it everywhere."
GUERIN: "But not in newspapers. I mean NGOs are the subject of the crackdown, journalists are the subject of the crackdown."
ALIYEV: "Not at all."
GUERIN: "Critics are in jail."
ALIYEV: "No, not at all."
GUERIN: "None of this is true."
ALIYEV: "Absolutely fake, absolutely. We have free media."
Ranking 154 out of 180 countries in Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index, Azerbaijan's government is understood to be deeply embedded in opaque and corrupt deals with oil and gas companies worldwide.
CEO of Transparency International Australia, Clancy Moore, says the regime's arrests have a chilling effect on democratic discourse in the country.
"The Aliyev family has been in power since 1993. Originally it was Heydar and then his son has taken over, Ilham. More recently in the last election, the political party won 92% of the vote in apparently fair and free elections. So this is a very authoritarian regime."
Located in the South Caucasus region, Azerbaijan became the site of the world's first industrially drilled oil well in 1847.
By 1899 it produced half of the volume of the world's oil.
With a large number of high-level oil and gas executives on Azerbaijan's COP-29 organising committee, the vested interests of the government have left many concerned about the legitimacy of their commitments.
Honorary Professor of Regulation and Global Governance at the Australian National University, Howard Bamsey has spent most of career as a diplomat in the realm of climate change.
He says the involvement of fossil fuel investors in climate negotiations is not necessarily a terrible thing.
"You could argue that they are bringing to the table the interests of oil producers. And you could say, well, oil producers are a very large part of the problem, therefore that's a bad thing. Or you could argue that if you don't get oil producers to the table, they won't take any action. There's no incentive for them to be part of the solution. So probably the truth is somewhere in between."
However, concern also swirls around Azerbaijan's commitments to expanding its fossil fuel industry, with recent commitments to double gas exports to Europe by 2027.
The oil and gas industry still dominates the economy in the country, with fossil fuels accounting for 98 per cent of it's energy mix and at least 90 per cent of all exports.
Earlier this year, the state-owned oil company SOCAR expanded its partnership with Russian oil giant Gazprom.
Additionally, major energy company BP is heavily invested in the country.
In 2022, B-P had over $126 billion invested in projects in Azerbaijan, and launched another major oil production facility there this year.
Clancy Moore says the industry's silence on Dr Ibadoghlu's arrest has been disappointing.
"I think another really important point to remember is Dr Gubad spent his life sitting around a table engaging with big multinational companies and governments. He was a board member of the Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative for at least six years. Around that board table sat countries including from Europe, but also big oil and gas companies like Total, BP. And so they've signed up for this process around greater transparency and accountability. He's sat alongside these governments and these companies. So why they would be willing to sacrifice their self-interest to access oil and gas revenues while someone like Gubad is in jail, is past the pale (beyond the fence), to be honest."
With thousands of foreign journalists expected to attend the COP-29 summit, Giorgi Gogia says the intense crackdown on media in Azerbaijan is raising concerns about how journalists covering the event will be treated.
"One thing is clear that robust rights respecting climate action really requires the full and meaningful participation of civil society in climate negotiations as Azerbaijan as a presidency of the COP 29. Now they have promised to ensure the inclusive participation. Will Azerbaijan do so? I have my doubts, but they do have this obligation to ensure and they have taken the obligation on their own to ensure the inclusive climate action. However, the actions for now don't give much hope for such a conference."
Mr Gogia says it's important for the international community to hold Azerbaijan accountable ahead of the summit.
"We are at the height of another crackdown in Azerbaijan - not in news by any means because we've seen it in the past as well - Azerbaijani, remnants of Azerbaijani civil society are struggling to survive. And it's really important that anyone who has the voice, anyone who can influence this situation, should use that influence and voice to engage with the authorities to make sure that those unjustly imprison are free and civil society within and outside of the country are able to freely participate in COP 29 for ambitious climate action."
Prior to his arrest, Dr Ibadoghlu was working on an article that investigated and exposed a scheme under which Azerbaijan is reselling the Russian Gas to the European Union in an effort to supersede sanctions.
Currently, he remains under house arrest, his trial suspended indefinitely.
With Azerbaijan branding this year's COP-29 summit as the first "COP for Peace", Dr Ibadoghlu's letter says the international community must not dismiss the government's actions.
"All of the Azerbaijan’s claims about investing into green energy are lies and all of you know it as its economy is built on oil and gas. It is just a facade designed to hide the fact that Azerbaijan has no plan to abandon fossil fuels or their export. The European Commission and the European Parliament should prioritise human rights, democracy and anti-corruption stance during the bilateral cooperation with the Government of Azerbaijan. Human rights should not be downplayed, they are not for sale."
