Farid Mehralizada is an economist and journalist for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)’s Azerbaijani Service, known locally as Radio Azadliq, who has been unjustly detained in Baku since May 30, 2024.
On the morning of May 30, 2024, Mehralizada was violently abducted near a Baku metro station by unidentified men. Placing a bag over his head, the men took Mehralizada to a police station. Later that day, Azerbaijani police escorted Mehralizada home, where he lived with his then-pregnant wife. Officers raided the couple’s home and seized their computer and mobile phones. Mehralizada’s car was also seized.
Authorities prevented Mehralizada’s lawyer from being present during the search of his home. He was denied legal counsel until the evening, as officers claimed he was not under detention but simply invited to the police station to testify as a witness—despite not having received any prior notice about such testimony.
On June 1, 2024, a Baku court placed Mehralizada in pre-trial detention for “conspiring to smuggle foreign currency” under Article 206.3.2 of Azerbaijan’s Criminal Code, in connection with a case Azerbaijani authorities brought against the independent media outlet Abzas Media. Immediately following the arrest, Abzas Media issued a statement asserting that Mehralizada had no direct involvement with the outlet and was one of many experts whose comments appeared on its website.
On August 19, 2024, Azerbaijani authorities brought new charges against Mehralizada, accusing him of “illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, tax evasion, and document forgery.” If convicted, he could face up to 12 years in prison.
Responding to a question about Mehralizada’s detention on June 5, 2024, U.S. State Department Spokesperson Matthew Miller said the United States is “deeply troubled by the continued arrests of members of Azerbaijani civil society.”
On October 24, 2024, the European Parliament adopted a resolution denouncing human rights violations in Azerbaijan and calling for the release of Mehralizada and other political prisoners.
25 civil society organizations, including the Committee to Protect Journalists, Human Rights Watch, PEN America, and Reporters Without Borders, issued a statement on September 11, 2024, calling on the Azerbaijani government to release all defendants in the Abzas Media case.
On September 25, 2024, a dozen human rights organizations called on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) to demand the immediate release of Mehralizada and others held on “bogus criminal charges” in Azerbaijan.
Mehralizada is one of four RFE/RL journalists unfairly imprisoned for their work, along with Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk in Belarus, and Vladyslav Yesypenko in Russia-occupied Crimea.