Azerbaijan’s jailed opposition chief urges West to search out ‘courage’ to face as much as regime as political crackdown sweeps oil-rich nation | EUROtoday

Ali Karimli has spent almost half a yr languishing in a grisly Baku jail cell on contested treason costs.

The veteran chief of Azerbaijan’s pro-democracy opposition social gathering, 61, has lengthy accused the regime of politically-motivated detentions, torturing his workers and blowing up his social gathering headquarters. But the newest arrest is totally different, he says.

Speaking to The Independent from jail, Karimli says his arrest comes amid a spiralling crackdown on dissent – and urges Western buying and selling companions to behave with “courage” and press the regime on its rights report, lest political opposition disappear altogether.

“The repressive campaign already underway … has now reached its peak with my arrest,” he mentioned, including: “It signals that a new era has begun – one in which the authorities intend to eliminate organised political opposition in Azerbaijan permanently.”

Rights teams have recognized no less than 340 folks they are saying have been detained as political prisoners, together with journalists and activists.

Concerns grew in December when a 22-year-old regime critic died by obvious suicide in jail. An investigation was by no means revealed.

Karimli warns that Baku’s commerce companions are sacrificing hopes of long-term stability within the energy-rich nation by “looking the other way”, and calls on the UK – as Azerbaijan’s largest overseas investor – to make use of its leverage.

As he prepares to face trial in June, Karimli says the regime will probably be watching the worldwide response to gauge tips on how to proceed with its crackdown, leaving solely a brief window for motion.

Karimli was detained on 29 November after safety brokers raided his house. He was accused of conspiring to overthrow the federal government in a Russian-backed coup and held incommunicado for 2 days earlier than being remanded on pre-trial detention.

A trial was anticipated to observe in the midst of February, however the date has since been pushed again till June. His household mentioned they’re nonetheless unclear on when precisely he will probably be tried. Meanwhile, he stays at a high-security facility in Baku.

“The regime here is extremely harsh,” Karimli instructed The Independent in responses to questions relayed by means of his household. “The State Security Service detention facility has the strictest conditions in the country.

“For someone who has committed no administrative or criminal offence — who has dedicated his life to peaceful democratic advocacy — the severity of the restrictions is, of course, deeply unpleasant.”

The father-of-three insisted the costs towards him are bogus, the “precise inversion of my documented, published position” arguing for deeper Western engagement and resistance to Russian strain.

He believes the case towards him is motivated by a calculation that the worldwide neighborhood is “too distracted” by different points, such because the conflict in Ukraine, to intervene.

The regime below Ilham Aliyev believes “that European governments, hungry for alternative energy sources after turning away from Russian gas, will quietly set democratic values aside”, he mentioned.

Azerbaijan’s relationship with Russia has shifted lately, hastened by the capturing down of an Azerbaijani passenger aircraft in 2024. The nation emerged from its 2023 victory in Nagorno-Karabakh a extra assertive regional participant, whereas Moscow’s safety affect has waned, nonetheless tied up in Ukraine.

At the identical time, Europe’s push to cut back reliance on Russian vitality has deepened its engagement with Azerbaijan, taking a stake in a rustic that depends on oil and gasoline exports for round half of its GDP.

Karimli says Russia’s “current reactionary and expansionist policies make genuine partnership difficult”, and argues nearer integration with “Euro-Atlantic institutions” – democracy, free elections, a free press, the rule of legislation and a free financial system – are each achievable and needed for the nation to progress.

He believes there stays urge for food for such reforms, even when the specter of persecution has made it more durable for the general public to precise.

The chairman of the Azerbaijani Popular Front Party (APFP) has lengthy confronted sharp resistance for his views. He was slapped with a journey ban in 2005.

Nine years later, the social gathering headquarters in Baku was engulfed in an enormous explosion supporters imagine was a deliberate provocation to deprive the social gathering of an workplace. In 2020, the social gathering alleged that Karimli’s bodyguard was tortured for 12 hours to testify towards him.

Amnesty International acknowledges an “intensified crackdown on dissent” by which opposition figures and the media “increasingly face harassment, arbitrary detention and politically motivated prosecutions”.

It describes the costs towards Karimli as “dubious” and requires his launch except they will present proof of an alleged prison offence.

Freedom House most lately scored the nation 6/100 for Global Freedom, warning corruption stays rampant and the formal political opposition “has been weakened by years of persecution”.

“By arresting opposition leaders, closing independent media, and dismantling civil society, the authorities remove every institutional route through which dissatisfaction could become political action,” Karimli mentioned. “They are not addressing the underlying conditions. They are preventing those conditions from producing consequences — for now.”

But the rising funding of Western nations in Azerbaijan presents a chance for change, he argues.

“Western officials must act with genuine foresight and courage in the South Caucasus. The window for consolidating democratic progress in the region requires sustained, unconditional engagement, not the cautious diplomacy of convenience.”

Speaking from London, Karimli’s daughter, Sezan, mentioned that the household solely has a “very narrow window” to behave, with the trial pushed again from February by June.

“Aliyev is watching very closely what the international reactions are, and once the show trial begins, it’s very hard for me to think how he could back down at that point. The political cost would be much higher,” Ms Karimli, 28, instructed The Independent.

“At this moment in time, he has the chance to quietly drop the charges and somehow save face. After the trial begins, it’s going to be a lot more complicated and costly politically.”

British officers from the embassy in Baku raised the difficulty of Karimli’s detention with senior members of the Azerbaijani Government on 4 December, urging due authorized course of and the place needed entry to medical care.

A spokesperson for the British overseas workplace mentioned: “We have raised Ali Karimli’s case with senior members of the Azerbaijani Government, including pressing them to follow due legal process and ensure necessary access to medical care in accordance with their international obligations and commitments.

“We continue to monitor this case closely, alongside the wider human rights situation in Azerbaijan, and raise concerns about the protection of freedoms directly with the Azerbaijani Government.”

The authorities of Azerbaijan was approached for remark.