Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025.

Country Report: Azerbaijan (Part 2)

​Torture and Ill-Treatment 
The physical abuse of Fazil Gasimov detailed in court proceedings in 2024 was emblematic of a wider pattern of torture and ill-treatment of detainees. Azerbaijani authorities arrested Gasimov, an academic, in August 2023 immediately after his deportation from Türkiye. He testified in court that police put his head in a toilet and electroshocked him, among other things, to coerce him to incriminate Gubad Ibadoghlu. The trial court accepted testimony in which Gasimov stated his incriminating testimony in relation to Ibadoghlu had been coerced under duress. At time of writing, Gasimov remained in custody and on trial on spurious currency counterfeiting charges and had been on a hunger strike since June 2024. 
 
On April 19, Imran Aliyev told a court during his custody hearing that police used electric shocks against him during his arrest to force him to “sign documents.” Five days later, Aliyev stated in appeals court that police beat him after they returned him from the April 19 hearing. The appeals court upheld his pre-trial custody, where Aliyev remains on a hunger strike at time of writing. 
 
In May 2024, religious leader Taleh Baghirzade, serving a 20-year sentence, accused authorities of extremely poor conditions in custody, including chronic water shortages. 
 
In July 2024, Abzas Media published a detailed account of torture allegations by the platform’s imprisoned director, Ulvi Hasanli. Between January and July 2024, Hasanli documented at least 58 cases of alleged torture or ill treatment in the detention center where he is awaiting trial. His family believes that another inmate’s violence and repeated threats of violence against Hasanli were at the behest of the authorities, in retaliation for his exposé. 
 
Nine military personnel received prison sentences ranging from 4 years and 10 months to 13 years following trials held in June and October 2024, bringing to 18 the total number of military personnel sentenced for torturing military officers in the Terter region in 2017. The 18 were convicted on charges including torture and inhumane treatment, serious bodily harm, and abuse of office. 
 
In July 2024, the Council of Europe’s Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (CPT) issued a statement about the Azerbaijani authorities’ “outright refusal to cooperate with the CPT.” The CPT said the authorities’ persistent failure to engage with the committee marked “a fundamental and unprecedented breach” of the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture that established the CPT. Citing this failure, the committee unilaterally published its report on its 2022 ad hoc visit to Azerbaijan. The report described “numerous allegations of severe physical ill-treatment/torture” mainly to coerce a confession, provide information, or “accept additional charges.” 
 
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity 
For years, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) people in Azerbaijan have faced ill-treatment, extortion, arbitrary detention, and discrimination by state and non- state actors. Media accounts indicate that discrimination leaves some transgender people struggling to find appropriate housing and employment, having instead to rely on LGBT rights groups and women's organizations. 
 
The government’s escalating crackdown on civil society also affected LGBT rights organizations, which have either suspended or completely halted their work for security reasons. In April the European Court of Human Rights struck out a complaint filed by 24 people affected by Azerbaijan’s 2017 anti-LGBT police campaign because the government admitted authorities had engaged in unspecified violations, and paid compensation. The 2017 police campaign involved arrests, violence, and torture of men presumed to be gay or bisexual, as well as transgender women. Applicants were “deeply dissatisfied” with the outcome because the government’s acknowledgment “lack[ed] specificity regarding the nature and extent of the violations” and because the government did not commit to investigate or otherwise prevent future violations. They noted that LGBT people continued to be targeted by police and that the authorities still did not respond to harassment and discrimination against them. 
 
Human Rights Watch, World Report 2025. New York.