Tofig Yagublu
Detained: December 23, 2023.
Charges: “Fraud resulting in substantial harm” (Article 178.3.2 of the Criminal Code); “Document forgery” (Articles 320.1 and 320.2 of the Criminal Code)
Sentence: Nine years.
Biography: Tofig Yagublu is a prominent political opposition figure and long-time government critic in Azerbaijan. He is a member of the opposition coalition National Council of Democratic Forces and of the Musavat Party. His critiques of state corruption and human rights violations have made him a target of government persecution, including harassment, surveillance, repeated arrests, and ill-treatment.
Authorities most recently detained Yagublu in central Baku on December 14, 2023. While he was out, they searched his home, where his wife, Maya Yagublu, was alone. As told by Human Rights Watch, who spoke with the family at the time, a group of officers told Mrs. Yagublu to go with them as they searched the second floor, while other officers stayed on the first floor. When she and the officers returned downstairs to the bedroom the couple shares, officers told Mrs. Yagublu to lift the pillows on the bed. There, they claimed to find €5,000 (US$5,465), 2,500 Azerbaijani manat (US$1,500) and an unspecified amount of U.S. dollars in cash. Mrs. Yagublu was reportedly shocked by the “discovery” given the family’s financial constraints. Authorities also seized the Wi-Fi router, an old laptop, Mrs. Yagublu’s phone, a notebook where she marked outstanding debts, and an address and telephone notebook.
Authorities charged Tofig Yagublu with forgery and fraud, alleging he and a co-conspirator provided a third party with fake documents to help him build an asylum claim. Yagublu denies all of the charges, maintaining that he was targeted because of his political work. Claiming— without evidence—that Yagublu was likely to abscond or interfere with the investigation into the alleged charges, the prosecutor’s office requested he be held in pretrial detention. The day after his arrest, the Narimanov District Court of Baku approved the request for a period of four months, but his detention was repeatedly extended.
Yagublu’s trial began in June 2024 at the Baku Court of Serious Crimes. It was rife with procedural errors and concluded on March 10, 2025, when the Court handed Yagublu a nineyear prison sentence. The Court rejected the defense lawyer’s request for Yagublu to move to house arrest. On April 1, Yagublu began a hunger strike, stating that, at his age, he was willing to die rather than remain in prison. In May, authorities permitted his daughter and wife to visit in prison and his personal doctor to examine him. On May 10, appealing to his family’s pleas, he ended his 40-day hunger strike. However, it had taken a severe toll on his already poor health, leaving him in critical condition. His family argue that Yagublu requires specialized care that the Penitentiary Service’s Medical Facility is unequipped to provide. His age and existing health problems, including chronic asthma, are exacerbated in the prison’s poor conditions.
On May 20, the Baku Court of Appeal upheld Yagublu’s sentence. It also denied renewed requests to transfer him to house arrest or to a civilian hospital. Authorities continue to deny his personal doctor permission to see him.
Yagublu’s detention and sentencing are among a spate of recent arrests of activists, opposition figures, journalists, and other civil society figures, many of whom are facing exacerbated charges and unusually harsh sentences. All this is, itself, part of the government’s decadeslong, systemic crackdown on critics and civil society. Yagublu himself has been repeatedly harassed and imprisoned on trumped-up charges. This includes several arrests on administrative charges, as in October 2019, when he was arrested for participating in an unsanctioned rally. He has also faced prior criminal cases. In 2013, Yagublu was arrested on fabricated charges of incitement for allegedly organizing protests in Ismayilli. He was released in 2017 under a presidential amnesty. In March 2020, he was detained on bogus “hooliganism” charges after a car accident. In September 2020, he was sentenced to four years and three months. He began a hunger strike that month and was first transferred to a hospital, then to house arrest. In July 2021, he was released on parole with a probationary period of two years and six months.
Advocacy Partner: Freedom Now