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Samir Ashurov An Azerbaijani appeal court has rejected a request for the early release of political activist Samir Ashurov, his wife says. The decision was delivered during a hearing presided over by Judge Afghan Alakbarov. Mr Ashurov’s wife, Nurana Ashurova, said that the Khazar District Court had previously also refused his application, despite the activist having already served two-thirds of his sentence. Mr Ashurov, a political emigrant, was deported from Germany to Azerb

Mamed Khalidov A Polish court has sentenced prominent mixed martial arts (MMA) fighter Mamed Khalidov to 18 months in prison over the handling of stolen luxury cars and assaulting a police officer, local media reported. The district court in the southern town of Tarnowskie Góry also ordered the 44-year-old to pay a fine of PLN 280,000 ($76,000). The verdict is not yet legally binding, and Khalidov remains free pending an appeal. The court found Khalidov guilty of purchasing o

Ardeshir Seyfpur Saad Abadi A court in Azerbaijan has rejected an appeal to release a Belarusian student to house arrest as he awaits trial over allegations of spray-painting graffiti on a landmark cinema. Ardeshir Seyfpur Saad Abadi, 20, was arrested in early April and placed in pre-trial detention for four months. The Nasimi District Court in Baku heard his appeal on 8 July but refused to replace his detention with house arrest. Azerbaijani authorities accuse Abadi of vanda

Hungary’s state broadcaster has issued an unprecedented on-air apology for "lying" to the public for years, as the country’s new government begins a sweeping overhaul of the media landscape. On Tuesday, 7 July, the main state-run channel, M1, suspended its regular programming and broadcasted a black screen featuring a stark written message to viewers. "Public media has no right to lie," the message read. "We apologise for doing this all these years! Currently, the media is be

Aleko Elisashvili A court in Georgia has sentenced opposition leader Aleko Elisashvili to 13 years in prison for attempting to set fire to a court building. Judge Giorgi Gelashvili delivered the verdict at Tbilisi City Court during a closed session on Sunday, after members of the public and the media were ordered to leave the courtroom. Defence lawyers had requested that journalists be allowed to hear the final ruling, but the judge rejected the appeal. Elisashvili, who leads

Azerbaijan continues to have one of the highest incarceration rates in Europe despite official efforts to reform its penal system, according to a Council of Europe report. The latest SPACE II annual report, published by the Council of Europe (CoE), reveals that Azerbaijan has 271 prisoners per 100,000 people, a rate roughly two and a half times the European median of 110. Only Türkiye recorded a higher rate, with 458 inmates per 100,000 inhabitants. Other nations with high in

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Justice Minister Togrul Huseynov has met a senior Council of Europe official to discuss judicial co-operation, following years of friction over the country’s human rights record. Huseynov held talks with Gianluca Esposito, the Council of Europe's Director General of Human Rights and Rule of Law, the Azerbaijani justice ministry announced on 8 July. The ministry said discussions focused on legal and institutional reforms, including forensic science, probati

Imran Aliyev An Azerbaijani court has restarted the trial of independent journalist Imran Aliyev, who used the hearing to demand authorities unfreeze his family's bank accounts. Aliyev, the head of the Meclis.info watchdog website, is facing multiple charges including smuggling and tax evasion in a case that local and international rights groups have condemned as politically motivated. During the hearing at the Baku Grave Crimes Court on 7 July, the presiding judge, Roman Ala

Dozens of residents across rural and municipal districts in Azerbaijan have accused local authorities of systemic corruption, alleging land theft, misappropriation of welfare funds, and denied compensation for industrial injuries. The complaints, spanning several regions including Guba, Absheron, and Shirvan, paint a picture of administrative breakdown and a lack of accountability among local officials and prosecutors. State bodies in the capital, Baku, have not yet formally

Proposed amendments to Azerbaijan's Land Code aimed at consolidating agricultural plots could leave small-scale farmers vulnerable to losing their land to large corporations, an expert has warned. The draft bill, which is currently being debated in parliamentary committee sessions, would allow the government to merge, divide, or redraw agricultural boundaries. While ministers pitch the policy as a way to boost efficiency, agricultural specialist Vahid Maharramov warned it cou

An Azerbaijani religious activist sentenced to 10 years in prison as a teenager has been placed in solitary confinement, according to his family. Mirvasid Aliyev, who was convicted in 2023, was transferred from Umbakı prison to Correctional Facility No. 2 on 20 June. His mother told local media she had not heard from him since the day of his transfer, raising serious concerns over his safety. "He called home the day he was transferred and we spoke for about two minutes," she

Zabil Gahramanov The trial of a prominent Azerbaijani defence lawyer who has spent nearly nine months in pre-trial detention has begun in the western city of Ganja. Zabil Gahramanov faces charges of hooliganism and fraud, which his defence team has dismissed as entirely baseless and politically motivated. During a preliminary hearing at Ganja City Court on 8 July 2026, his lawyers filed motions to have the criminal case dismissed or, alternatively, for Mr Gahramanov to be rel

Nijat Ibrahim Azerbaijani authorities are seeking to move jailed activist Nijat Ibrahim to a closed-security prison, his lawyer and family have said. The head of Prison No. 10 has submitted a formal request to a court asking for Ibrahim's sentence to be upgraded to a closed prison regime for three years. A hearing is scheduled to take place at the Narimanov District Court on 14 July. Ibrahim's wife, Parvin Ibrahimova, told reporters that the move was a pretext to punish her h

Sahib Mammadzada An Azerbaijani opposition activist has gone on a hunger strike in prison after being placed in solitary confinement for allegedly failing to wear socks during a daily roll call, his family says. Sahib Mammadzada, the local chairman of the opposition Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (APFP) in the Dashkasan region, has been on a dry hunger strike for four days at Prison No. 10, according to relatives speaking on 9 July. His family said guards punished him after

Nargiz Mukhtarova An Azerbaijani court has handed women’s rights defender Nargiz Mukhtarova a seven-and-a-half-year suspended prison sentence in a case widely criticised by civil society groups. The Baku Grave Crimes Court on Thursday found Mukhtarova guilty of money laundering and abuse of power, but dropped a forgery charge because the statute of limitations had expired. She was given a three-year probation period. She had previously been under police supervision rather tha

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ordered the Azerbaijani government to pay €75,450 (£63,000) to a family whose property was unlawfully demolished by local authorities. The ruling, published on 7 July, concerns Firuz Verdiyev and Safayat Verdiyeva, whose commercial building in the western city of Ganja was destroyed in 2013. The Strasbourg-based court found that Azerbaijan had violated the family's right to property and their right to a fair trial. The dispute beg

An Azerbaijani court has sentenced popular TikTok influencer Ilduze Hajiyeva to five years and two months in prison over a fatal car crash in Baku. Hajiyeva, known online to her followers as "Arzum 9999", was convicted of violating traffic safety regulations causing death, and illegally leaving the scene of an accident. The Khazar District Court also stripped her of her driving licence for two and a half years following the trial, which concluded on 2 July. The prosecution ar

Defence lawyers in Azerbaijan have called for the acquittal of independent journalists and activists as closing arguments concluded in the high-profile Toplum TV trial on Monday. The trial of 10 defendants associated with the independent outlet Toplum TV and the Institute for Democratic Initiatives (IDI) concluded its defence stage at the Baku Grave Crimes Court. The defendants, who face aggravated smuggling charges, deny all allegations and say the prosecution is politically

A legislative campaign in Georgia has severely restricted independent organisations and cut off vital funding, Human Rights Watch (HRW) has said. In a new report, the international campaign group said the Tbilisi government must stop treating civic activity as a threat and repeal measures designed to silence critics. The report, titled Georgia: New Laws Are Destroying Independent Civil Society Groups, claims the authorities are making alarming progress towards dismantling the

Kassym-Jomart Tokayev Kazakhstan's Constitutional Court has ruled that President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev can seek another seven-year term in office, effectively resetting his presidential term limit. The court said on Tuesday that restrictions under the country’s newly adopted constitution only apply to elections held after the law came into force on 1 July. As a result, terms served under the previous 1995 basic law will not be counted towards the single-term limit. Approved i