The Baku Grave Crimes Court sentenced Imran Aliyev to 10 years in prison and Elgiz Gahraman to nine years on Thursday. The court also gave Tamella Musayeva, an accountant at Meclis.info, an eight-year suspended sentence. These defendants face charges including illegal entrepreneurship, money laundering, smuggling, tax evasion, document forgery, and the use of forged documents. Aliyev, who was detained on 19 April 2024, denies the charges and says his prosecution links to his work documenting the activities of Azerbaijan’s parliament and its members.
Sentences for Aliyev and Gahraman
The prosecutor previously requested 12 years for Aliyev and 11 years for Gahraman during a hearing on 20 October. Gahraman was arrested in the courtroom immediately after the verdict and moved to the Baku Pre-trial Detention Centre. His relatives said he will serve his sentence in a strict-regime penitentiary facility. This follows a previous arrest for Gahraman in August 2016 on drug-related charges. He was released on 17 March 2019 under a presidential pardon, but the NIDA Civic Movement stated he was arrested for political reasons over a critical post he published on social media.
Legal history and ECHR rulings
On 13 January 2026, the European Court of Human Rights ruled on two complaints regarding Gahraman’s previous detention. The court found violations of article 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights because the government failed to investigate his allegations of torture and his placement in a metal cage during court hearings. Under that ruling, the Azerbaijani government must pay Gahraman €10,000 for non-pecuniary damage and €2,055 for legal costs. Authorities deny that these persecutions are politically motivated and maintain they hold detainees on criminal charges.
