Azerbaijani political analyst Bahruz Samadov, who is known for his criticism of the country’s authorities, was arrested in Baku on August 21. Samadov’s grandmother, Zibeyda Osmanova, told RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service that after her grandson’s arrest police searched their apartment and informed her Samadov was suspected of illegal drugs-related activities. Later, a lawyer called and told her her grandson “is being accused of treason.” Samadov, a doctoral student at the Charles University in Prague, has been critical of Baku’s military offensives in 2020 and 2024 that ended with Azerbaijan regaining control over the then mostly ethnic Armenian-populated breakaway region of Nagorno-Karabakh. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Azerbaijani Service, click here.
Critic of the Azerbaijani authorities, was arrested in Baku on August 21
