Committee for Protection of Gubad Ibadoglu's Rights established

Baku/25.07.23/Turan: Azerbaijani authorities arrested Gubad Ibadoglu fearing the creation of a new political force, a new leader in the country. Adalyat Yusubov, deputy chairman of the "Azerbaijan Party for Democracy and Welfare" (APDW), said this at a press conference on 25 July.

Ibadoglu's brother Galib Bayramov said that the Prosecutor's Office plans to file a complaint against politician's lawyer Zibeyda Sadigova to the Bar Association.

"Allegedly Zibeyda Sadigova revealed the secret of the investigation. They want to leave Gubad without defence, that's why we have increased the number of lawyers," Bayramov said.

He also noted that the Baku pre-trial detention centre-1 did not accept a handover and clothes for Ibadoglu, saying his name was "not in the system".

Director of Turan News Agency Mehman Aliyev proposed to create a committee for Ibadoglu's protection and working groups on different directions of this committee's activity.

Azer Gasymly, head of the Institute of Political Management, said that arrests of this sort would continue because the regime was going "from authoritarianism to totalitarianism."

"The arrest of Gubad Ibadoglu is not only related to his critical speeches, to the fact that he is the chairman of the Party and created a student foundation. The authorities are preparing for a new crackdown and have started eliminating activists and opposition politicians.

The society and the opposition should be ready for this," Gasymly said.

In turn, National Council Chairman Jamil Hasanli said that Ibadoglu himself named the person who ordered his arrest. "He said it was Ilham Aliyev. This is really true."

He called it absurd to accuse the scientist, who teaches at the world's leading universities and trains students to earn money by legal means, of making and selling counterfeit money.   

Human rights activist Rufat Safarov said that Ibadoglu, as a leading economist and politician, had become a headache for the authorities. "He had serious anti-corruption investigations regarding projects in the liberated territories," he said.

An expanded public committee for Ibadoglu's defence should be set up with the involvement of prominent intellectuals and members of the public. He also emphasised the importance of the public committee's work with Western institutions.

Following the results of the discussions, the Public Protection Committee has been set up under the chairmanship of Jamil Hasanli and three working groups in different areas of this structure. -21D-