Imprisoned opposition leader Ali Karimli 'deprived of sleep'

Ali Karimli

The family of jailed Azerbaijani opposition leader Ali Karimli say he is suffering from severe sleep deprivation after authorities refused to transfer a mentally ill cellmate placed in his room.

Mr Karimli, the chairman of the opposition Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (AXCP), has reportedly seen his health deteriorate significantly in recent weeks.

The AXCP said in a statement on 2 July that the cellmate was moved into Mr Karimli’s cell in mid-June, shortly after the politician gave an interview to the international broadcaster France 24.

In that interview, Mr Karimli described himself as a prisoner of conscience, asserted that his arrest was politically motivated, and criticized European nations for allegedly overlooking human rights abuses in Azerbaijan in exchange for gas supplies.

According to the Committee for the Defence of the Party Leader's Rights, the newly introduced cellmate chants loudly and incomprehensibly throughout the night, making sleep impossible for others in the cell.

Repeated requests by Mr Karimli and his legal team to have the inmate transferred have been ignored by prison administrators, the committee said.

The AXCP also reported that Mr Karimli's communication with the outside world has been restricted. During a scheduled 15-minute telephone call with his family, the connection was cut three times, leaving him with only four minutes of talk time.

In the brief call, Mr Karimli reportedly told his family: "I am here precisely because I said what they did not want me to say. If I had remained silent, I would not be here."

His lawyers said their subsequent appeals to the court to restore the politician's legal rights have not been registered by judicial authorities.

"Ali Karimli is being treated not as a prisoner, but as a hostage, and a crime is being committed against him at the state level," the AXCP statement said.

Mr Karimli has been detained since 29 November 2025 alongside Mammad Ibrahim, a member of the party’s governing assembly. Both men face charges of attempting to forcefully change the country’s constitutional order.

The arrests are reportedly linked to a wider, ongoing investigation surrounding Ramiz Mehdiyev, the former head of the Presidential Administration.

Opposition supporters and international human rights monitors have condemned the charges as politically motivated, describing the prosecutions as part of a systemic campaign to silence dissent in the Caspian nation.

More than 20 AXCP members and activists are currently in detention. The Union for the Freedom of Political Prisoners of Azerbaijan, an independent monitoring group, lists 328 political prisoners currently held in the country.

The Azerbaijani government has repeatedly denied accusations of politically motivated prosecutions.

Official agencies maintain that all detainees are held in connection with specific criminal offences and that no one is prosecuted for their political beliefs.