An appeal to prevent the deportation of Afgan Sadygov has been sent to the ECHR.

Security officials have found a formal way to circumvent the ECHR's ban on Afgan Sadigov's extradition from Georgia to Azerbaijan, human rights activists reported, asking the ECHR to also ban the journalist's deportation.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," Afgan Sadigov was detained late in the evening on April 4 and taken to the Tbilisi City Court, which issued a ruling that night to deport him to Azerbaijan. This ruling conflicted with the ECHR's ban on Sadigov's extradition to Azerbaijan, according to the human rights organization "Center for Social Justice," which provides Sadigov's legal defense.

The deportation decision violated Afgan Sadigov's rights, stated Tamta Mikeladze, head of the Center for Social Justice.

This is the first case in which international law has directly and openly intervened in a case, and the state of Georgia has violated it.

"The decision of the European Court on interim measures [to suspend the extradition of the journalist to Azerbaijan] remains in effect until the European Court itself annuls it and is satisfied that the risks of violation of the individual's rights no longer exist. Afghan Sadigov's case is the first case in which international law has directly and openly intervened in a case, and the state of Georgia has violated it. We notified the European Court of this decision last night and asked for "The issuance of a new interim measure in this case for Georgia," Tamta Mikeladze wrote on Facebook*, whose post was translated into Russian by a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.

She noted that after his release from pretrial detention, Sadygov "constantly wanted to leave Georgia." "But the court imposed travel restrictions on him at the request of the Georgian prosecutor's office. His family has political asylum in Europe, and family reunification was his desire and interest. The process of obtaining a humanitarian visa had begun, but it was suspended due to the ban on leaving Georgia. The process was supposed to begin expeditiously these days after Azerbaijan lifted its extradition request... We still don't know where Afgan Sadygov is," Mikeladze wrote.

The journalist's wife, Sevinj Sadygov, told a "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that by 1:30 p.m. local time (12:30 p.m. Moscow time), she had no information about her husband's whereabouts.

The Georgian Ministry of Internal Affairs announced today that Afgan Sadygov was detained administratively for "insulting a police officer" on social media. According to the agency, Sadigov was sentenced to a fine of 2,000 lari (approximately $742), deportation from Georgia, and a three-year entry ban, InerPressNews reports.

The agency explained that since the ECHR ruling prohibited Georgia from extraditing Afgan Sadigov to Azerbaijan, the Georgian side refused his extradition. However, since the Azerbaijani prosecutor's office dropped the criminal prosecution against Sadigov in the case in which the ECHR applied an interim measure, all extradition proceedings in Georgia have also been terminated. At the same time, the administrative offense charged to Sadygov allows for deportation from the country, the publication states.

13:58 04.03.2026

Human rights activists have recorded a significant increase in the number of imprisoned journalists in Azerbaijan

Azerbaijan is among the European countries with the highest level of criminal prosecution of journalists. Of the 148 journalists held in prison at the end of 2025, 36 were in Azerbaijan.

As a reminder, Afgan Sadigov regularly participated in protests by Georgian residents after his release from a pretrial detention center in Tbilisi. In the fall of 2025, he served several administrative arrests for participating in blockading streets in Tbilisi. On October 23, Sadygov was sentenced to 14 days in jail and also received 54 fines, totaling almost $100,000.

Afgan Sadygov arrived in Georgia with his family in December 2023 for medical treatment, but remained there due to the crackdown on human rights defenders, journalists, and activists in Azerbaijan. On July 17, 2024, Georgian border guards prevented Sadygov from flying to Turkey, explaining that he could only return to his homeland. Sadygov said that he had already received threats in Georgia from "people from Azerbaijan." Sadigov's family was able to leave Georgia; the journalist's wife and daughters are currently in France.

Azerbaijan demanded that Georgian authorities extradite Sadigov, and the journalist was placed under arrest. On September 20, 2024, he went on a hunger strike in a Tbilisi pretrial detention center to protest his arrest and denial of political asylum. He only ended his hunger strike in January 2025.

Journalists from a number of media outlets, including Abzas Media, Meydan TV, Toplum TV, and Kanal-13, have been persecuted in Azerbaijan. The "Caucasian Knot" report "Serial Arrests of Journalists in Azerbaijan" details what led to the new wave of repression against the independent press.

In 2024, the number of political prisoners in Azerbaijan reached its highest point in the country's 23 years of membership in the Council of Europe, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Key Points to the Record Number of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan." At the same time, the Azerbaijani authorities deny the existence of political prisoners in the country.