Afgan Sadygov's future after deportation to Baku has worried human rights activists and his family.

Georgian authorities handed over Afgan Sadigov to Azerbaijan's Migration Service. The journalist was informed that the criminal case against him had been dropped and he was released. Human rights activists and the journalist's wife fear that a new case may be brought against him.

As reported by the Caucasian Knot, Afgan Sadigov was detained late in the evening of April 4 and taken to the Tbilisi City Court, which ruled that night that he would be deported to Azerbaijan. This decision conflicted with the ECHR's ban on Sadigov's extradition to Azerbaijan, according to the human rights organization "Center for Social Justice," which is providing Sadigov's legal defense.

Sadigov has arrived in Baku and is at large, staying with his relatives, said Tamta Mikeladze, head of the Social Justice Center, which defended Sadigov's rights in Georgia.

"A few minutes ago, we learned that Sadigov is in Baku, staying with his relatives. It appears that after being interrogated in Baku, he was allowed to return home," Mikeladze wrote on Facebook* around 5:30 p.m. Baku time (4:30 p.m. Moscow time).

However, she did not rule out the possibility that a new criminal case could be opened against Sadigov after some time.

"It is important to closely monitor the developments events. It is possible that this could be the regime's plan - to bring new charges against him in a few weeks or months and, regardless of the current trial, "stitch up" a completely new case. After a special operation of this scale, it is impossible to trust autocrats," she continued.

According to the human rights activist, if the Azerbaijani authorities do not have new plans against Sadigov, then they should allow him to leave Azerbaijan in the coming days and reunite with his family, who have received asylum in a European country.

The journalist's wife, Sevinj Sadigova, who is in political exile in Europe, confirmed that he is at large in Baku.

"Yes, Afgan is already in Baku and is still at large. However, judging by the way in which the lawlessness was committed against Afgan and the way in which he was detained, hastily brought to court and sent to Azerbaijan, and taking into account the previous cases against my husband, there are concerns that a criminal case has been developed against him. "An insidious plan and he awaits a new arrest," Sadygov told a Caucasian Knot correspondent.

The journalist himself was unavailable for comment.

However, in an interview with the Azerbaijani exile publication Qazetci, Afgan Sadygov spoke about the details of his transfer to the Azerbaijani authorities.

According to Sadygov, he was handed over to Azerbaijani border guards at the Red Bridge checkpoint in the Gazakh region.

"I was handed over to the Migration Service. From Gazakh, I was taken to the Main Migration Department in Baku. The department informed me that the criminal case against me had been dropped. Therefore, there are no legal grounds for my detention. I was released, and I am in Baku," the publication quotes Sadygov as saying.

The journalist believes the decision of the Tbilisi City Court His deportation was considered illegal. "The decision of the European Court of Human Rights prohibiting my deportation to Azerbaijan was grossly violated. The Georgian government will be punished for this illegal decision," he added.

In the journalist's view, the danger for him has not passed.

"Those who are deported from abroad are not arrested immediately, but after some time. Rashad Ramazanov, who returned from Georgia, as well as those deported from Germany, were arrested some time after returning to Baku," he said.

PFPA member Pünhan Karimli, deported to Azerbaijan from Germany in November 2021, was arrested in January on drug trafficking charges. The Baku Court of Grave Crimes sentenced him to six years in prison on June 27. In addition to Karimli, three other activists were deported from Germany. (Jafar Mirzoyev, Malik Rzayev, and Mutallim Orujov), who were returned to Azerbaijan in the fall of 2021, were arrested on charges of drug trafficking. Another activist, Samir Ashurov, who was also among the 38 Azerbaijani citizens returned from Germany under the readmission agreement, was detained in Baku on April 19 and arrested on charges of attacking a person with a knife.

Law enforcement agencies have not yet commented on the case of Afgan Sadigov.

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 blocking the streets of Tbilisi. Thus, on October 23, Sadigov was sentenced to 14 days of arrest, and also received 54 fines, amounting to almost $100,000.

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

Azerbaijan demanded that the Georgian authorities extradite Sadigov, and the journalist was placed under arrest. On September 20, 2024, he announced hunger strike in a Tbilisi pretrial detention center in protest against his arrest and denial of political asylum. The journalist 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" describes 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 about the Record Number of Political Prisoners in Azerbaijan". At the same time, the Azerbaijani authorities href="https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/408499">deny the existence of political prisoners in the country.